I
have been involved in motorsport for probably nearly 60 years -
once rallying became the norm I, as a trials driver, felt that speed
was not really my thing
and moved into the administration and
organisation side of the sport.
Hence my involvement with the original S.I. Silver Fern in 1970 (the plaque of appreciation still hangs on my wall).
These things do tend to go in cycles and for a number of years I took no active part in the sport.
However
when the call went out back in 2004 or thereabouts,
for
people interested in recreating a marathon rally like the original
Silver Ferns my hand shot up!!
By
this time I had (have) teenage boys who, I suggested might like to
get involved.
This then is why we have been part of the Silver Fern
team in 2006,2008,2010, during which time we were trained to step into
any place that became short staffed for whatever reason.
In reality it meant that we did rock clearing and block marshalling as required.
My
teenage son (James) was very keen to compete at car club level (we
belong to Marathon and Thames Valley Car Clubs)
but I would not let
him compete until he had served his apprenticeship by helping out as
an official on many events.
Although he now does compete in club events we (all) still enjoy being part of event organisation.
Specifically we have been part of Russell Mann's finish crew for
2011
Rally NZ (Waikato)
2011 Rally Whangarei
then
2011 Rally of Gisborne (this time with Donald Welsh)
2011 Rally of the North
2012 Rally Whangarei (this time with Glen and Deb)
2012 Rally NZ (with Daniel Vincent)
2012 Rally of Gisborne (again with Donald Welsh)
2012 Rally of the North
2012 Rally of Maramarua
2012 Silver Fern Rally
The
SBT Tairua Stage Timing team is now pretty much at full strength,
i.e. 9 people.
Personell do change around a bit but in general we are
becoming a fairly well oiled machine.
We therefore also marshall and time for local car club and invitational events.
We
live at Tairua on the Coromandel, happily travel the country
(although the Silver Fern is being in the N.I. this year we are
usually quite used to a 5000km trip to"do the rally".)
For
Gisborne ,Whangarei and Rally of the North, etc I get the boys off
school
and we get to where we are going (in my 1 million Km Toyoya
Service Van) in time for shakedown or whatever