Welcome to Auto Torque 2022. Good news at last. All COVID-19 Restrictions have been lifted. The Coronavirus strains of Delta and Omicron have been defeated and have ceased to exist.
We all look forward to these headlines in the media sometime in the not too distant future. This will happen BUT NOT at this point in time.
In the meantime let’s make the most of what we CAN do. Our 50th anniversary in March is rapidly approaching. There are limited numbers on Saturday night for our dinner at the Golf Club. Time is running out to secure a seat BUT there is no limit on numbers for Sunday 27th. On Sunday morning there is a run to Mannum and return followed by everyone gathering at the Wharf area, Murray Bridge Riverfront for a vehicle display. If you cannot join in the run to Mannum please bring along your car/truck and or motorbike for display for the general public to admire and for viewing by past and current members of our club. Remember this is not a rehearsal – 50 years is once only event.
And before the 50th celebrations we can all head down to the Swanport Reserve to socialize on our Swanport cruise on Friday evening 11th February hosted by Jan.
We know that there have been a few dramas in organising events/runs due to the ever changing variations to COVID-19 restrictions, particularly at hotels and meal venues. At times this has caused postponement or cancellation of a proposed run. We need your help! Please advise us of any suggestions for places of interest to visit and/or runs for club events that could be held either now or at some time in the future.
On a personal note I was contacted in December by Peter Detloff of Swan Reach. Some of you may remember visiting his collection of John Deere tractors, etc on a club run that we did to Swan Reach to visit the Swan Reach Car Museum, established by John George and run by their local car club. Peter built and successfully raced a Chev Corvette on speedway circuits around South Australia in the 1980’s. I purchased the Corvette in 1988 and raced until 1996 then selling it and devoting my time to restoring our 1924 Nash Hearse for the next 4 years. The #19 Corvette was then used in off road circuit racing at Whyalla, Port Pirie and Roxby Downs. Peter found the Corvette in a very rough and bad state of repair north of Adelaide. He is intending to rebuild it to original specifications. He contacted me on the off chance that I had kept parts or panels from over 30 years ago. My wife, Liz has repeatedly complained that I have accumulated so much junk and we need to call Shannon Watson to clear the yard of scrap. Luckily for Peter I had the original fabricated square tube bumper bar, I kept it after square tube bumpers were banned and replaced with round tube. I also had an original bonnet; the original fibreglass moulds no longer exist. Over the past 25 years the Corvette has been cut and shut, engine relocated and a Holden front end grafted to the chassis but with a lot work it will hopefully return to the track to run in “classic speedway events”.
The moral of this story is “Never throw anything out, someone at some time will use it”
I’m looking forward to taking #19 for a run.
Claude Minge
