RallySport Magazine February 2017

COMMENT
STORIES WE’D LIKE TO READ
Christmas time – the time when
we traditionally put our feet up,
select a comfortable chair and a
cool, shady spot, and settle in for some
quiet time with a cold drink or two to
help us while away the hours.
We’ve all done it at one time or
another – it seems to be a part of the
Australian way of life.
However, there’s just one thing
missing – a good book to read, one
that will keep you occupied for some
considerable time. There are plenty
of books available at this time of year,
both fiction and non-fiction, so there’s
no shortage of titles to choose from on
the widest possible range of subjects.
RallySport Magazine went looking to
try and find something suitable to read
over the Christmas break, something of
interest and with a motorsport theme
but, surprise, surprise, nothing seemed
to be available.
Oh, there was rack after rack of books
on cricket, football, golf and rugby
league. It seems everyone who’s ever
had a career in a particular sport, both
currently and in the past, needs to tell
others of their achievements, whether
that’s of public interest or not.
Take cricket as a for-instance. There’s
Ricky Ponting, Darren Lehman, Chris
Rodgers, Mitchell Johnson, Glenn
McGrath, Alan Border, Bill Lawry and
hundreds more titles. Same goes for
Australian Rules football – the list (and
the code) goes on.
But we weren’t interested in any ball
sports or the like. We wanted to read
about real sportsmen and women and
their rallying and motorsport exploits,
the funny stories and the tragic ones
that will strike a chord with us, and the
real personalities of the sport that we
admire so much.
Our search of the shelves turned up
nothing – surely someone could publish
a fictional tale about some aspect of
motor sport or a factual story about a
long distance event or whatever.
Why, Evan Green did it years ago
with “Dust and Glory” and “A Bootfull of
Right Arms”.
Even the legendary Ross Dunkerton
put pen to paper to write “Dunko” some
years back with Bob Watson, while
ex-Holden Dealer Team guru mechanic
and driver, Mat Philip, published his
own ‘warts and all’ autobiography back
in the late 90s. Seems it can be done.
Just imagine these possible titles
- “The Neal Bates Story”, “My Years
46 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - FEBRUARY 2017
Story: JEFF WHITTEN
in Rallying, by Ed Ordynski”, “The
story behind Rally Australia by Garry
Connelly”, “Simon Evans’ Most Hilarious
Rally Moments”, “Be My Guest” by
Michael Guest, “The Harry Firth Story”,
“Cody Crocker, Possum Bourne’s
prodigy”, “Maximum Attack by Rob
Herridge” and so on and so on.
As is obvious by the suggestions
above, there is a plethora of stories out
there that need to be told before it’s too
late.
You may not think that your story is
worth telling, but that’s probably what
E.L. James thought when writing “Fifty
TOYOTA THRU & THRU
The
NEAL BATES
Story
CODY
CROCKER
The rally career of
Possum Bourne’s
prodigy
FROM JUNIOR STAR TO NATIONAL CHAMPION
Rally driver to
fishing guru
BE MY GUEST
Shades of Grey”, and look how that
took off!
But leave it too late (as was the case
with the late Harry Firth) and all that
untold history, the fabric of Australia’s
rallying history, is lost forever.
Almost everyone in rallying has
a story worth telling, despite their
reluctance to sit down and record
their individual history for others to
read. Convincing them to do this is the
difficult part.
But can you imagine the interest
there’d be in sitting down and reading
the Neal Bates story, or the Coral Taylor
history!
Surely those would have to be highly
entertaining.
So, all you rally tragics out there,
please make an effort to tell us of
your rallying history and exploits, and
publish them so that the rest of the
rally world has something worthwhile
to read next Christmas.
You won’t make a fortune from sales,
but it might just attract others to do the
same.