A Williams fan gets his revenge

In 1968 I took a ride in the driver’s seat of a brand new Monaro sitting on the turntable in Blackwell Motors showroom in Christchurch. Even then it struck me that the centre console was a strange place to put a tachometer.

As I remember it, I was grabbed by the ear and told to bugger off. I didn’t buy the car.

That was the year I turned twelve. I loved cars but I knew nothing of the Hulme/Brownlie accident until reading about it recently in Classic Driver. I found Mr Brownlie’s accounts revealing but his mention of Keke Rosberg brought back some fond memories.

I followed Keke’s career in F1 because he’d raced in New Zealand and I’d seen him race at Wigram. My youngest brother Steve and his mate Dave supported McLaren for much the same reason most Kiwis do. In 1985 Keke drove for Williams and I was away to South Africa to see the last GP there for many years (Keke came second to his team mate) and to catch the first one in Adelaide (Keke won). Steve had pressed some money in my hand and asked me to pick him up a duty free camera in Sydney on the way home.

I told the man at the duty free shop how much money I had to spend and what features I wanted and suggested that if there was a Canon camera that fitted the spec, so much the better. As a matter of fact he had a Canon camera available on special that had all the features my brother wanted and came in slightly under budget. Sold!

Steve was rapt with his new camera. He photographed everything. One day his mate came round and Steve couldn’t resist showing off his new toy. Dave admired it and was struck by a thought: “Canon... they sponsor Williams don’t they?” followed by a short pause while a little light flickered on. “That BASTARD!”

Thank God for that. After a few days I thought I’d committed the perfect crime – and that’s no fun. Malcolm Graham Christchurch