24 fastlane
hall of
fame
3
HISTORICAL
TOM HOOVER TAKES THE WIN
– 1995 AUSTRALIAN NATIONALS
CALDER PARK RACEWAY
I think number three, I didn’t win, but one of my cars did was when Tom Hoover was here. And
still call it equally the greatest drag race I ever went to and that was at Calder Park in 1995. I
don’t believe I’ve ever seen a better atmosphere or a better drag race. We had everything. We
had helicopters in the air, it was part of the Winfield Pro Series and Tom was out here.
Tom had no idea how to drive a dragster, he was a Funny Car man and he was trying to steer
the damn thing. We finally got him to do things right, he come through and won the race
(against Brad Simpson). That one stuck in my mind because it was a team car that won it and
it was just an incredible feeling at that event where you had the sky lit up with two helicopters
in the air. I think one was Bob’s (Jane) and it was a hell of an achievement taking tobacco back
to Calder Park.
(The event) was massive and again I don’t want to take away any credit from Larry Ormsby.
Larry worked for me, I was too busy racing my Fuel car, Larry knew what he had to do, he
worked some terribly long hours and he took no prisoners. La rry would confer with Darryl
Eastlake, the track owner.
Larry had experience in everything. Larry had run drag racing, he had won Top Fuel
championships, he had won a Nationals and him and I were just great buddies. He went into
that event and he said; ‘We probably won’t ever get to do another Nationals and we’re going
to make this one the best.’ We went back to my friend Ian Kleeman from Rothmans and I said
what’s the budget? And he said; whatever it takes.’ That was the nicest thing anyone could
have ever said about the event.
To give you an idea there was another event that wasn’t the Nationals but Ian gave me a
budget for it and I gave half of it back, I couldn’t spend it to make it happen, to make it work,
to make every drag racer enjoy it. I just wish we could bring back that camaraderie, I just wish
we could bring back the memories of that to show people what it can be like if we all get along.
And it (the event) was under the ANDRA banner and it was the only thing to win.
Tom Hoover vs Brad Simpson
4
RAVO - 1990 AUSTRALIAN
NATIONALS
RAVENSWOOD RACEWAY
There was no opportunity to run the Nationals in New South
Wales or Victoria and a lot of people don’t understand, Victoria is
the home of the Nationals. When it didn’t work anywhere else, it
worked in Victoria. It wouldn’t work in Sydney, it wouldn’t work in
Brisbane, at Willowbank but it always worked at Calder Park.
One year I don’t know what was wrong, but I rang Kevin Prendergast
at Ravenswood and I said; can we bring the Nationals to Perth?
And he said; ‘that mightn’t be a bad idea.’ So we took it to Perth, it
was an outstanding event, everyone loved it but you couldn’t do it
again. I don’t know that they made any money out of it. But they
did it from the heart and for the sport and the Nationals worked in
Western Australia that one time and I felt really proud that I was
involved in that. It was just one of things that, it clicked. There are
so many funny stories out of that.
1990 Australian Nationals
There was a young fella from South Australia racing a dragster
and over there at Ravenswood they weren’t used to anything
running real fast. And this young fella goes sailing down and puts
the front wheels under the fence twice. I said to Noel ‘get over
and help that guy in his dragster’. This is the Nationals and these
are the little things that come back to you.
What was wrong was he’d pull his parachutes but his pilot chutes
were no good. The chutes would come out as he hit the fence
and he did it two or three times in a row so Noel took over a
couple of pilot chutes and said to the guy ‘do it again’. Out he
goes, pulls the parachutes and he was stopped and out before
he got anywhere near the fence. He said he just didn’t realise the
importance because he was privileged to race at tracks that had a
little bit longer braking area.
There’s are 10,000 stories out of that event, it was just a party. The
Nationals always used to be a get together, a party.
5
THE PLUMBERS UTE
1966 AUSTRALIAN NATIONALS
It was very strange, I’m out racing my
plumbers Ute and there was two Ramchargers
in this country. Lance Larsen and the name of
the people escapes me now, remember I’m
talking 50 odd years ago. These cars used to
come out and match race, they were imported
from America.
Well for some reason or another, I’d gone
through and won B-Modified Street and here
I am thinking, this is a National event and
look what I’ve won. Next minute I’m called to
the staging lanes and (they) said you better
go and get your Ute, you’ve got to race him.
I said ‘what have I got to race him for?’ They
said it was a run off to get the title. I said that
can’t be right, but anyway sure enough I go
out and race him and he broke his gearbox
and I beat him. And that’s when I heard about
karma.
Then it took me well over 10 years to get
ANDRA to recognise that I’d won a title
in 1966. We got the trophy out and Tony
Thornton, who is another great person for
our sport, officially presented the trophy
to me because it was under the Australian
Hot Rod Federation
and ANDRA wouldn’t
recognise it. So it was
actually my first ever
National win in my
old plumbers Ute.