VSAQ 2020 Christmas Party
The 6th December attracted around 100 members, past speedway riders, drivers, officials, guests and friends to the Vintage Speedcar Association of Qld’s annual Christmas party at the Wynnum Golf Club.
Being in the later part of their lives, they may be the most vulnerable, given the Covid pandemic, but years of battering and recovering from crash injuries have made them fearless and no-way were they going to take the safe option and stay home. Appropriate props were an electric blue Donnelly Special four-wheeler and one of Nigel Boocock’s two wheeled sliders. Tony Webb and Darren Sonnenberg brought the bike along and with help from a couple of determined lads got the machine up two flights of stairs to the dining area.
I shared a table with Kev Torpie, his wife Chris and son John. Chris shared many stories from when she and her young girlfriends frequented the speedway in Middlesborough (UK). She met and married young Aussie Kevin who was racing there, lived the speedway life, moved to Australia and still has a tremendous passion for the sport. Kev is in his 80s and still rides road bikes, telling me he had recently been on a ride to Nobbies Pub near Toowoomba. He took the opportunity to throw his leg over the Boocock beast between courses. Daughter of long time Brisbane Exhibition Speedway official Don Poultney, Madison Hebbard, also took the opportunity to do her best impression of going sideways on the Boocock bike.
Part of the proceedings was very entertaining with Jack Porritt who made many of the shy diners uncomfortable as he circled the room interviewing the past drivers and riders with questions like “What was your favourite track?”, “Your best experience in speedway?”, “Your worst accident?” and most controversially, “What do you think of speedway today”? To the last Grahame Gardiner suggested that the current bikes are “too easy” to ride unlike the beasts they had to tame. Awards were handed to special club members followed by a monster raffle ending the formalities.
The top step of the podium was the group shot of all the speedway notables in attendance. It was a bit like herding cats but we got most of them there in the end. This photo is priceless as everyone got a laminated photo (place-mat) at the dinner which was a captioned 2019 group photo. Hopefully this tradition will continue with the class of 2020 laminated for the 2021 party. Thanks to Darren Sonnenberg who shouted me as his guest and all the club office bearers and members for a tremendous day with some notable celebrities of early speedway.
4th December 2020, saw a celebration of Jack Taylor’s 95th birthday, with a great roll up at the ‘Pie in the Sky’ restaurant at Cowan, along the Old Pacific Highway north of Sydney. The venue is always a popular spot for weekend motorcyclists, and many turned up for Jack’s big day.
Jack is a member of the Central Coast Classic Motorcycle Club, and sets the benchmark for motorcyclists in how you can continue to ride into your later years of life.
The party was run by Jack’s wife and family members. The majority of people rode there on their classic and modern motorbikes. Jack’s overwhelming popularity caused some parking issues, so many were forced to arrive by car. From Ray Kennedy