A racer – to the end

Grey skies on the first Sunday of October take away some of the guilt when Bathurst is on TV. It’s certainly easier to overlook the outside jobs. I like to show willing on other tasks, and typically plan to watch the first hour and the last 30 minutes or so, but invariably end up watching pretty much every lap.

I’m unlikely to forget the day 30 years ago when the drizzle stopped at about the time my two young daughters were displaying cabin fever. We walked to the home of friends who had girls of a similar age and, crucially, where I was also confident the beer would be cold and ‘the Great Race’ would be playing. My mate was already approaching as we arrived, and he was not his normal cheery self. “Have you heard?”

The gravity of his expression indicated the news wasn’t good but I wasn’t prepared for such a shock — Denny was dead.

We didn’t bother watching much after that, meaning that it wasn’t until much later that I heard the most out-of-character comment race winner Jim Richards made to the crowd from the victory rostrum. After Denny retired from Formula 1 at the end of 1974, the Hulme family returned to New Zealand to their new home on the shores of Lake Rotoiti. A new-found passion for traction engines