Tuesday 19th September 2006
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Peter Brock's Funeral_Program & Bookmark Images
We finished the Club Meeting Monday night. Lawrie raised the idea of driving to Melbourne for Peter Brock’s funeral. He rounded up three unlikely suspects, Steve, Callum, and Pat, and the deal was done. We headed home, packed, and waited for Lawrie to pick us up at midnight for the overnight dash to Melbourne. We swapped drivers every two to three hours through the night, while others slept. We made Melbourne by 7:00am, found a park, and headed to the Cathedral. A few onlookers where already in place, and the local copper told us that there was a section around the side where we could line up, as they were allowing 200 members of the public inside the Church. We stood in line, with about only 15 others at that stage, making little mercy missions for things like breakfast, fluids, toilet stops, etc. Met up with Rob (Flatliner) and two other guys that flew in from Perth from the Combined Torana Club of Western Australia overnight. Spoke to Bill, who used to be with Bridgestone for 23 years, doing tyres for the various incarnations of 28c and 05, including a stint living with the legend Peter Brock. His favourite car was the Gown Hindhaugh L34. He was also telling us how they put hard tires on the rear to help the car stop trashing axles and gearboxes. While standing in line, various media were buzzing along the fence conducting interviews. As per usual, the cameras took an instant liking to Lawrie, one interview with him making Channel 10 news nationally. Pat only managed his arm and service booklet on the box. We finally moved off into the Cathedral at around 10:30. We probably would have seen more if we sat outside, but that wasn’t the reason we were there. It was a great honour being there, along with many others from the racing fraternity. The service was quite lengthy, and after waiting for invited guests to leave, we exited about 45 minutes after the service had finished, but still in time to see the family leave with our Peter Brock. We grabbed a bite of eat, and not over enthusiastically headed to the car for the trip home. The trip was the same as the way up, although it was decidedly easier to nod off, and driving in tandem with Brad Jones to Wadonga. Lawrie woke in horror to find Brad Jones in his Falcon ahead of us! We stopped for dinner at the Truckstop at Tarcutta (Half way between Melbourne and Sydney). There is a small café there where we looked around at all the racing memorabilia while waiting for our dinner, including Peter Brock’s Mobil 1 Fuel Card!!! As we got closer to Canberra, the driving stints got shorter, as fatigue started to set in, all of us keeping an eye on each other at the wheel. We arrived back in Canberra about 11:00pm. While at times we thought we were crazy, it was well worth the trip to send of this great Aussie Legend. Thankyou for the memories Peter. Special thanks to Lawrie for organising us and allowing us to use his car for the trip. Attended by:-
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© Copyright 2006 Canberra Torana Club Inc.