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With the passing of the legend Peter Brock, myself and Brett were not going to miss this opportunity to farewell the great man. Brett cleaned up the blue beast and whacked some tribute stickers on the car, Mark Wear from the club came along too as he wanted to be in a Torana on the day. We headed off to meet up with a few mates who were attending the day too. We met up with about 10 Torana’s near Sandown and then proceeded into Sandown Raceway. When we arrived there was already a crowd at the gates all ready to get inside. It was free to attend, but one nice gesture when we walked in the gates was there were free posters for us to take, free service booklets and also that as we walked up the back of the grandstand we were able to sign our names in the attendance books that the Brock family would receive afterwards. The crowds were huge, the main straight was packed full of cars on display. A lot of HDT Commodores, and various other cars, but one thing that surprised us was the lack of Torana’s on this strip. With a few mates asking the question, it was not that much longer, till they had the go ahead from the officials that a few of the Torana’s from our group were allowed to participate in the line up. (Thanks heaps Rick for wording up the officials and getting our cars out there). With this being something he would never forget Brett was fast to go grab his car and get it out on the track. Whilst the general public were coming in and admiring the cars, there was also a big screen on the other side of the track which played lots of old footage of Brocky, from interviews, and races in his heyday. The service started and the crowd went silent. John Davison was the MC for the day doing a fantastic job. Other speakers included Fred Gibson, Mark Skaife, Allan Moffat, John Harvey, Arthur Bartlett the CAMS Chaplin, and Phil Brock. During the service John Davison organised to play footage of all Brocky’s wins at Bathurst. Whilst this was playing, the audio failed, so there sat 10,000 people sitting in the grandstand and all were in complete silence. I’ve never witnessed this before, you could not hear a pin drop it was so eerily silent. Except for after each of the 9 Bathurst Wins, the crowd would just clap, scream out, shed a tear or two and cheer on the great man. What an atmosphere!!!! We then left the grandstand to wait with the cars on the track before the parade lap. A few officials were walking around handing out “05” flags for the parade lap cars to wave out their windows. Then just before it was time another guy walked up with a “Start Your Engines” sign. Alexandra Brock waved the final chequered flag one last time as the Austin A30 driven by James Brock drove by. Then the parade cars proceeded around the track with headlights on. Being the last cars in the parade it took a while for us to go thru. But when we finally did it was one of those moments that chokes you up and you will never ever forget. As we drove thru the crowds of people lined up on the start line, one guy yelled out to Brett “Yeah a real car” so that put a smile on his face! It was a pretty emotional day, but one we will never forget. - Deb (EHGIRL) “RIP BROCKY” |