| When
Sedans Were King |
Memories of Lismore
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Text and
all Images Copyright Graham Mison
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The '70s, if you were a
Speedway fan back then you'll
probably talk of riders like
Mauger and Crump, speedcar
steerers with the names of
Revell, Mackay and Tatnell and
Super Modified drivers such as
Hopping and Briton. When you went
to a meeting there was a variety
of divisions, from Solos to
Speedcars each with their heroes
and villains right? and if you
lived in a major city such as
Sydney a number of tracks to
attend on any weekend of the
racing season. |
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| But it wasn't like that
everywhere. In Summerland (yes that's
what the area from Coffs Harbour to just
north of Lismore was called then, long
before the yanks stole the name for a TV
show) when the Lismore Showground became
a Speedway it was an economic reality
that only one division could be
supported.. We would get our own set
of heroes, local heroes, and every one of
them had the good sense to drive a racer
with a roof, yes they all drove sedans,
some people called them stock cars, to us
kids in the playground they were just
stockies. Later, as we matured, we
refered to them as sedans.
My family home was in North Lismore,
same suburb as the Showground, so it was
a certainty that I would go to a speedway
meeting at some time. I and some of the
other kids of the neighbourhood would see
many of the race cars being taken to the
track on Saturday afternoon of a meeting.
They'd come down Bridge street, turning
into Terania or sometimes continue
straight ahead to make their way to the
Showground. We'd excitedly chatter about
the look of them and comment on how fast
we thought they'd go.
Whenever a meeting was on the engines
and the announcer could be heard from our
back step, and after wearing my elder
brother down over a period of time I
convinced him to take me to one. This was
after a couple of seasons had already
been run. We sat in the public grandstand
and I was hooked, the sound, the smell,
the lights and the on track action all
added up to something exciting that
impressed me like nothing else. Names
that I'd heard spoken of in exciting (but
always exaggerated) stories in the school
yard now were as real as life right in
front of me - Pezzutti, Maher, Randal,
Pearce and many more
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| Local
Heroes |
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Two of those
drivers were the essence of my
point about local heroes, Neville
(Nev) Pezzutti and Max (Maxi)
Maher. To many spectators they
represented Good and Evil on the
track. Who was which of course
depended on your point of view.
If you cheered for one you had to
boo the other, for to have a hero
there must be a villain right?.
Where did this situation come
from? I can't say for sure as it
was already in place when I first
took a seat in the grandstand. |
| Looking back now
I think it came down to the fact
that they both worked their way
to the top of the local pile and
would often be duelling each
other for the same piece of
track, things happened out there
and fans told stories of who did
what to who. A tap on Saturday
night became a shove on Monday
morning. Next thing you know the
guy with the used car yards the
Devil reincarnated in his dark
coloured hell taxi! You couldn't
even put this down to a Ford vs
Holden thing as they were both
loyal to the General. |
| Both drivers went
onto some prominence in national
sedan racing, particularly in Qld
and as part of the Australian
sedan team against visiting USA
teams. Pezzutti having some
success in a couple of Toranas
taking several major events
including a Cannonball 1000 in
Brisbane. He finished second to
Grenville Anderson when he took
his third national title at Bagot
Park in the Northern Territory. I
well remember Maher's 4 door
Monaro in it's first season and
how spectacular it was. That
thing had a massive amount of
power and torque and would lift
the inside front wheel at least a
foot off the ground under power
for almost a full lap of the 1/4
mile circuit, add to that a
massive blue and yellow flame
that spewed out the side exhaust
on the engine over-run
accompanied by a loud WHUMP! and
this was one spectacular car
driven by a driver with some
ability, and not really a bad guy
on or of the track.
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| A pair of drivers
don't make a race (except
of course a match race
and we had plenty of
those) and there were
many other locals that
shone, both male and
female. Names such as the
Armstrong brothers, Gary
Bishop, Wayne Randall,
Bob Worling, Ethel Eggins
and many more. And what
were they driving?
Toranas, Falcons,
Monaros, Cortinas,
Anglias, several marks of
Zephers, Escorts,
Datsuns, Minis, every
model of early Holden,
the odd Valiant and many
others. And there is the
reason I believe speedway
sedans were so popular in
the '70s, they looked so
similar to what people
drove around in and just
the same as on the road
circuits of Australia at
the time, sedans were
having a Golden Age.
Today's Super Sedans have
never regained the crowd
appeal that they enjoyed
then. A meeting at
Lismore would almost
always consist of sedans,
sedans and more sedans!
There were 3 grades of
competition A,B and C
with the track
championship supported by
the Lismore Auto Club,
often the trophies were
presented by the local
Member of State
Parliament, Bruce Duncan,
who was a keen fan. And
what of the races?
usually short heats of
about 6 laps with a main
final of around 20-25
laps. The last event of a
meeting in the early '70s
would usually be the
Tap-Tap race. In this you
could tap the car in
front a number of times
with your car and then
spin them out of the way!
great fun for the
spectators and very
entertaining. Other races
included those only part
of the end of season
meeting, which included a
women's only race and a
mechanics race.
Most meeting were run
at night, as was and is
the norm for most
speedways, however there
were the odd exceptions
and due to early starts
some races were run in
daylight making it
difficult for drivers to
see the control lights.
So flag marshals were
used, some in the backs
of vehicles like Mini
Mokes whose drivers would
drive to the edge of the
infield so a red flag
could be waved at
competitors. Others,
standing over the fence
in the no go area for
spectators, would wave
whatever flag was needed
over the fence hopefully
catching the drivers
attention. Dangerous
stuff, yes!
Another meeting out of
the normal was, I think,
a one off. A combined
rodeo and mini speedway.
I remember very little of
it other than probably
the most spectacular
rollover I've ever seen,
it occurred in front of
the public grandstand and
involved an EH Holden
(driven I believe By Bob
Worling) that rolled
about 5 times from which
the engine flew out of
its bay, landing some
distance down the track.
Not an easy thing to
happen as engines were
chained in.
Speaking of rollovers.
At sometime interval
entertainment was
introduced, this
consisted of a small
number of cars built to
be deliberately rolled
over. They were called
Rolly-Polly cars,
something like a Morris
with an external set of
roll bars. These were
sent out onto a section
of track, usually in
front of the grandstands,
were there was no fence
repair or track
preparation going on and
let loose on each other.
They lasted for a few
years but then just
disappeared.
Like so many other
tracks at that time
Lismore had one down fall
- the wooden fence. Many
meetings would see a car
take out a board or two
of the 2 inch thick
timber and a lengthy
delay would follow. At
one meeting I witnessed a
splinter of wood about a
foot long shoot off and
spear into the ground
just in front of a young
spectator. Now a days the
fence is concrete, saves
on down time but has to
be harder on the cars.
Of course I'm not
including that other
completely uncontrollable
factor - the weather.
There were a couple of
seasons in the 70s when,
if a meeting was planned,
it seemed it would always
rain and rain big.
Rumours of crop planting
and harvesting by the
speedway calendar were
rife through out some
sections of the
community.
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| Back
Straight Action |
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| Speedway
Trail(er) |
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| The
amenities were for the time excellent,
the Showground being the site of the
local Show, the North Coast National -
it's reason for being really. High and
powerful lights, a pair of large covered
grandstands with another two small open
ones built in the early 70s plus more
tiered wooden seating around most of the
track. If you arrived early enough you
could even score undercover parking in
the pavilions used for auto and machinery
displays during the Show. Plenty of hot
food stalls (the smell of Dagwood Dogs
and hot chips brings on memories of both
the speedway and the Show to me even now)
and even a Beer Bar were the envy of many
a better known track at the time. When I
moved to Sydney in the early '80s I
thought that Lismore had it all over
Liverpool and Parramatta in that
department. It wasn't just the locals
that competed at each meeting, there was
always at least a handful of visiting
drivers mostly from Queensland tracks but
also Newcastle and later Grafton. These
visitors were often portrayed as the bad
guys and needed our guys to beat them
"fairly" to show them the error
of their ways. Every now and then what
happened on the track continued on the
infield outside the cars.
Word soon spread among the sedan ranks
that the Northern Rivers had a pretty
good track and support staff and was well
promoted by the afore mentioned Stibbard,
a one time Stockcar driver.He often drove
the start (pace) car, so was out in front
of the crowd when an unpopular decision
was handed down by the stewards, so he
copped a lot of abuse from all sides but
it's doubtful that there would have been
a speedway in Lismore without him.
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| Views
From The Back Straight Seating |
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Please
click on the small images for a larger
view.
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This article appeared in Speedway
Sedan Digest over 4 issues - Issues #57 -
#60.
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