VALE PINKY
> WE BID FAREWELL TO THE MAN WHO VOICED THE GOLDEN YEARS OF HORSEPOWER HEROES AND MUCH MORE
AFTER a long battle with ill health, legendary show announcer Gordon ‘Pinky’ Fellows passed away in September at the age of 76. Pinky is best remembered for his long stint as the voice of the Street Machine Summernats Horsepower Heroes and tattoo competitions, as well as countless other car shows up and down the east coast.
The somewhat-unlikely son of a magistrate, Pinky was born in Grafton, NSW in 1946. His roots in motorsport go back to his days racing short-track speedway and dirt bikes in the late 1960s and early 70s. This included a stint in the Australian short-track team, which saw Pinky race for his country against England, picking up three first-place spots and a second.
Pinky also immersed himself in Sydney’s cruising and street racing scenes and was a regular at Brickies, Big Chief and the Bass Hill Drive-in.
“We were lucky,” Pinky told Geoff Seddon for our Legend story in SM, September 2002. “I put a ’57 into a telegraph pole once,” he recalled. “The wildest, craziest, most dangerous car I had was a Triumph Mayflower with a 253 Holden motor. There was no such thing as engineer’s reports or anything, you just went ahead and did it!”
Pinky’s show-business career began in the 1970s as a department store spruiker, which he built upon to eventually boast a résumé that included TV, film, commercials, comedy, magic, radio and more.
The magic side of things explains the origin of Pinky’s stage name. “I created Mr Gaspo, a character who filled up balloons, on The Super Flying Fun Show on Channel Nine from 1975 to 1980,” he recalled. “That show was sold, so I came up with another character, an eight-foot-tall pink elephant, for a magic show – I still do magic tricks, rope tricks – and then Pinky the Magic Clown.
“I also did the club circuit as a compere/ comedian. I got a hot-pink outfit made up, big poofy sleeves, big cuffs. In 1982 I tried to go back to being ‘Gordon Fellows’, but it was too late.”
Avid fans of 80s TV may have spotted Pinky on such shows as Sons & Daughters, E Street and Rafferty’s Rules, while he also worked on a number of iconic films, including Mad Max 3, Burke & Wills, Archer and The Spanish Horseman.
Pinky’s radio career included an almost decade-long run as morning presenter on Sydney’s 2RRR in the 80s and 10 years at Hawkesbury Radio in the 90s and 2000s.
All the while, Pinky also honed his skills at live events, including at various Royal Agricultural Shows and drag boat meets.
His entrée into the world of car events didn’t come until 1997, when he was given the opportunity to fill in for legendary announcer Milton Adey at the ASRF Street Rod Nationals.
“Chic Henry was there and asked me to give him a ring,” Pinky recalled. “I did Chic’s
Sydney show the following September and met guys like Bruce and Ray Morrison from Meguiar’s and Bob Roman from Auto-tek, who got behind me with some clothing and product. I then did my first Summernats in January ’98. That’s when the doors really started to open. I did the Victorian Hot Rod titles after that and it went from there.”
Car shows would soon become Pinky’s full-time gig, which saw him travelling the eastern seaboard almost every weekend of the year. A big part of Pinky’s appeal was that he came with his own outside broadcast unit – first housed in a caravan he pulled with his flamed XD wagon, and later in his iconic Toyota Coaster.
Pinky was an early adopter of the internet, building pinky.com.au, which became the best source of info on Aussie car events that existed online in the 2000s.
Besides Summernats, Pinky’s roll call of regular major events included the Victorian Hot Rod Show, the Holden vs Ford Nationals,
Easternats, Chryslers on the Murray, Springnats, Adelaide’s Extreme Horsepower Show, the South Coast Nationals, Wintersun and the Eastern Creek off-street drags.
Pinky’s work life was slowed by a heart attack in 2018, and he formally retired from announcing in 2020 as he battled the onset of dementia. He had five children – Tracy, Jacqueline (deceased), Trevor, Michelle and Billy Joe – as well as a stack of grandkids and great grandkids.
“Dad had two brothers, James and Kevin, who have both passed,” says his daughter Michelle. “Dad and Uncle Kev were the best of mates. Uncle Kev was the pit announcer at Valvoline Raceway and was very much into the car scene with Dad.”
Pinky’s memorial will be held at Castlebrook Memorial Park, Windsor Road, Rouse Hill on 13 October. The family is encouraging friends of Pinky who own hot rods and street machines to bring them along and give him a send-off in style.