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TimD, I've grown up in motor racing through the very era that saw the emaciation of the Racing Car and the favour of the limelight granted to the Touring Car.
Moreover, the V8 Supercar push has denuded all other categories of any real promotion or public display outside of race meetings, and we now have some fantastic cars of all classes racing for nothing against themselves at deserted circuits.... enough spectators to help put the cars on the trailers at the end of the day.
I'm sure David would agree with this, although in Historics there is a lot more interest...
In this minefield we have an attitude among promoters that they can make big bucks out of the V8s, so why bother doing anything for the other categories. I must say, there are some exceptions, Wakefield Park and Winton standing out among them, and possibly the new management at Willowbank (ugh!), and of course at Mallala, and Wanneroo where they have no alternative...
So everybody races at Club meetings all year round, never gets before a serious audience unless they have a car that's judged worthy of being in a support race at a V8 meeting, never has a chance to impress a sponsor, and they still have to wear the same racewear as Michael Schumacher!
The CAMS have sold off the rights to the V8s to AVESCO, and for a relatively paltry amount, so they no longer get any income to run their top-heavy organisation from this lucrative area, but more cost burdens are loaded onto the club competitor, who has just been told by the same august body about that racewear requirement...
So ask me, please, what I have against this category. Sure, the racing's great, closer than any we've seen virtually ever, with good control over marque supremacy and good reliability.
But where is the rest of Australian racing? Where are the openwheelers (apart from Formula Ford)? Where are Sports Cars? What about the Gold Star, who hears about that these days?
We lost the Tasman Cup to this same shift of interest, when it all boils down, and the enthusiasts who want to go racing now are obliged to put up with these unsatisfactory conditions in order to do so.
Historic Racing is almost all that's left, from a satisfaction point of view.
Soap box time over for now.
And Tim, the white car is the big-selling version of that model in Australia, unique to our market, I think (not sure about NZ), the Morris Major. There was also an Austin Lancer in the same mould, and they got new sheetmetal front and rear in about 1960 to look more like the Farina Oxford/Cambridge line.
Later the Major continued alone with a 1622cc engine and was dubbed the Major Elite, ran to about 1964, supplanted by the Morris 1100. Do you want to know about iron diff housings and the Austin Freeway too? Fine spline axles?
By the way, these colour pics are from recent Historic meetings and were taken by Peter Schell... P.O. Box 67, Liverpool NSW 2170... 02 9602 5317... thought I should put that in to save him the trouble of complaining about copyright!
Here's a mixture of some Yankee iron at Oran Park:
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