Sunday 19 April 2009

Kel Carruthers Dinner

It was lovely to catch up with everyone at our patchwork group yesterday afternoon. I always love seeing what everyone is up to. I had to leave early as we had another function to be at last night.

We went to a dinner in the pits complex at Bathurst's famous Mt Panorama racing circuit. It was to honour Kel Carruthers who was a famous motorcycle racer.

I knew of Kel, but didn't know what a great he was. He first raced at Bathurst at the age of 16 in 1955 and won his class. He raced there very successfully until 1965, including scooping the pool in 1964. He then went to Europe and won the Isle of Man TT and ended up world champion, based first in Europe and then in the USA, where he mentored the likes of Kenny Roberts who also went on to be a world champion.

This was Kel's first visit to Bathurst since 1965. It was a great night. There were about 130 people there including several illustrious racers from the past, a "fireside chat" with between Kel and our local racing historian as well as terrific food. We're really pleased we went.

1 comment:

Sandi said...

Sounds like you had a great night out.