Seeing sparkes

Seeing the pic of Peter Sparkes in the story on Adelaide International Raceway (OBA 53) reminded me of the following. It was probably around 1975 and Kiwi Graham Gleason was visiting Adelaide after meeting an Adelaide friend of mine at the Isle Of Man. Graham was a prominent side car racer in NZ and had raced a couple of times at the IOM. Anyway there was a meeting at AIR so we found Graham some leathers and a 350 Kawasaki triple with a Suzuki GT250 front end. Graham got through scrutineering only to be told reluctantly by Clerk Of The Course Peter Sparkes that “sorry you can’t ride because you only have an international licence and this meeting isn’t authorized for that. But just wait over there anyway.” So Peter got his urgent duties out of the way and asked Graham where he was from. When he replied Danivirke in the North Island, NZ Peter proclaimed “Oh, that’s where my