Last week's Speaker: Ian Mayberry - Goodwood Race Meeting
Posted by Franz Huber on Feb 11, 2017
Ian jumped in at short notice after our booked speaker Garry Green was unable to make it. Now, just for those of you who don't know already: Ian could - unkindly - be ascribed the tag of 'Petrol Head'. I say unkindly because he is not the 'Bogan' Petrol Head type - Ian has had an association with car racing going back for decades and, in particular in his younger days, has actively raced not just souped up touring cars but also 'open wheelers' (see picture on left). He regularly serves as the 'Clerk of the Course' at major race meetings such as the Gold Coast Castrol 600.
So it came as no major surprise to learn that he recently shouted himself a ticket to the annual 'Goodwood Revival' Race Meeting in England. Revival? Well, they are not just displaying old racing cars, such as Jack Brabham's last Tasman Series, or $20 Million Maseratis. They are racing them! There are even people who go through the trouble of shipping a restored car worth millions from here to the UK, race it over there and ship it back again. And just in case you doubted that the event is for people who have more than just a couple of bob to rub together: the Ice Cream Van is a vintage Rolls Royce (picture on right). But wait, there is more...
(picture on left: at $20 Million each, you are looking at $120 Million worth of just Maseratis - Model 250F.)There are rare Jaguars, "Yank Tanks", nippy open wheelers, Porsches of which only one or two ever were made. There are vintage aircraft displays, old Austins (Rowan Atkinson raced one of them), even the French manage to get a race specifically for Peugeots. And dressing up is de rigeur: People dress up in Period Costume, e.g. 1950's style, gentlemen in tweeds, ladies in furs. And they even have a race for kids who can compete with their pedal driven vehicles. 
On his way back, Ian took a stop-over in Thailand to visit Hellfire Pass (picture on right), the scene of the horrific World War II Burma Railway POW construction camp. Ian visited it to honour his father who served in the AIF and was one of the 7000 prisoners sent to that region. 45% did not survive. His father was later on transferred to work in the coal mines of Japan and was about 50 miles from Hiroshima when it was bombed. He did survive.