THE TRIP TO THE 2013 PIONEER AWARDS
CLARKE'S CLASSIC CADILLAC CAVALCADE OF KAOS: THE TRIP TO THE 2013 PIONEER AWARDS - by GeoffO
They roared up the driveway of my farm near Seymour at 1.30 Thursday afternoon Nov 14th. horn blaring on the '84 stretch limo Cadillac and four wide eyed grinning lunatics leapt out. Former dragster star Peter Clarke was the ring leader of this motley crew and had been unwisely joined by Funny Car legend Jimmy Walton, former Comp Bike hoon "Plastic Pete" Edwards and future front engine dragster pilot Jess Lawrence. Jess was by far the junior member of this aging crew of walking frame candidates and perhaps he wondered if we would all be warming up our Horlicks and gumming our soggy biscuit by 8.30 most evenings. In reality he was our designated bourbon and coke mixer, way into the early hours each and every night, once we had finally grown tired of drinking beer. Clarkie was beaming as he informed us that getting to the farm was the longest trip the Caddie had ever made. Uh Oh!!! Waiting with me was the very honourable Paul Hannell, who owns the ex Roy Thomas "Pincher" '70s Castlereagh front engine dragster. Paul had quite logically flown down from Brisbane to join the crew for the journey back to Sydney. Well, it sort of made sense at the time I guess!!!!!
2013 Pioneer Awards Auction
The ANFA this year have accumulated some really neat pieces of Memorabilia from around the world to have an auction at this years Pioneer Awards.
There is some personally signed and donated items from Don 'Big Daddy' Garlits, 2 shirts, a hat and his ever popular book, Don Garlits and His Cars.
Don has always stepped up to the plate when asked, solidifying his place as one of the true greats of our sport. All personally autographed by Don as we have stated, and you may remember a little while ago that I eluded to a 'BIG' racer with some goodies.....well now you know.
There is also an autographed AAA embroidered hat from Robert Height, a Littlefield Blowers black t-shirt and a March Meet event shirt and a Winged Express number plate, all from Bill Sivertsen's personal stash.
These are some other items to get your slicks burning........we have an original Bruce Lynch print of the Syndicate Funny Car donated by Bill Crealy and personally signed by Big Ed Stipanovich and Graeme Cowin on the night. Thanks heaps guys.
Bill has also donated an original Eastern Creek Starter Shirt, and again, Bill would be only to happy to autograph.
Ross Preen has just arrived back from the Hot Rod Reunion with a signed photo of the Magicar, again personally signed by Bill Pitts, Jeep Hampshire and Kent Fuller. Way cool.
Then two other items that should round out the night beautifully......a framed Cowin Family Racing Crew Shirt enclosed in a stunning frame with a picture to suit. This is the ducks guts. Waaay cool!
The last item to mention, although there will be more on the night, is an actual sit in a Nitro Powered Hemi fuel car....which will round out the evening. Getting stinging eyes thinking of that already.
There has been a persistent rumour that one of the true greats of the sport in its hey day will be back in the country at the same time as our awards, we are just waiting for him to confirm the date and we will holler as soon as possible.
So, most of the above items will be available to be looked at in the Gallery, so click on and have a look.
We are counting down the days to the Awards, so please let your friends and racing buddies know and let myself or Ross This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., know you are coming and we will add you to the list.
Thanks
Australian Nostalgia Fuel Association - Pioneer Awards Organising group
2013 Pioneer Awards Press Release
2013 A.N.F.A.
Pioneer Awards
The Australian Nostalgia Fuel Association are proud to announce the recipients for the
2013 ANFA Pioneer Awards.
'Pommie' Pete Allen
Jim Walton
Ian Splatt
Ron and Allen Moore
Bob Honeybrook
Lex Swayn
Posthumously recognised recipients: Joe Borg, Jim Gullen, Harry Holgerson, Trevor Mobbs, Pat Ratliff, Bill Oakey, John Taverna and Colin McDonald.
The Awards will take place at Sydney Dragway on the weekend of the 16-17th November 2013, commencing with the Rocket Open Day on the Saturday, the Pioneer Awards in the evening at the track along with a free BBQ and the Nostalgia race on the Sunday.
This will be a not to miss event, as there are several of the big names of the sport from the past who will be in attendance to meet and greet all there friends and fans from that Golden Era.
For further information, log onto ANFA.com.au, the track at sydneydragway.com.au
Sincerely,
Australian Nostalgia Fuel Association - Pioneer Awards Organising group
2013 Pioneer Awards Nominations
PRESS RELEASE
Australian Nostalgia Fuel Association.
Wednesday 7th August, 2013.
Pioneer Awards
Nominations CLOSED!
Please stay tuned for the announcement of the recipients for the 2013 Pioneer Awards to be made after the AGM in August.
Sincerely,
Australian Nostalgia Fuel Association - Pioneer Awards Organizing group.
2013 Pioneer Awards Nomination
PRESS RELEASE
Australian Nostalgia Fuel Association.
Saturday 1st June, 2013.
Pioneer Awards
Nominations NOW OPEN!
Well, it is that time of year when the ANFA opens nominations for the prestigious 'ANFA Pioneer Awards'.
The awards again will take place at Sydney Dragway on Saturday evening 16th November with a Nostalgia event to occur the next day.
We are improving on last year with the fun and frivolity and we will also be holding a 'Racers Auction' which our group has already starting putting items in place. This alone will be cool.
We have also added a Posthumous category in the nomination section, so if you feel inclined to nominate one of our past greats (even in your eyes only) please feel free to do so.
After the nominations close on 31st July, the list will be presented to the ANFA AGM on Sunday 4th August 2013 where a ballot will be held to select three ANFA members, and they alone will determine the final recipients.
The final list will be published once the potential recipients have been contacted and invited to attend. This takes sometimes up to three weeks alone to locate people.
Nominations may NOT include any of the previous recipients, or those who have been recognized Posthumously (with the previous sixteen posthumous already adorning the wall at Sydney Dragway).
2012: Warren & Freddie Armour, Graham Hussey, Jim & Nelma Reed, Joe Gatt, John English and Dennis Syrmis
2012 Posthumous: Milton Adey (2010), Mick Atholwood (2012), Charlie Dennis (1979), David Missingham (), Mark Stewart (2012), Bob St Lawrence (2009), Maurice Allen (1994) and Bert Jones (2000)
2011: Eddie Thomas, Bob & Maureen Dunn, Graeme Cowin & Wendy Johns, Peter & Brian Keegan and David Cook
2011 Posthumous: Roly Leahy (2009), John Lumb (2011), Bruce Phillips (1991), John Storm (1974), Doug Stewart (2007), Wayne Rowe (2010), Lester James (1980) and Graham Scholes (1978)
So, that's just about all you need to know. Start your nomination by just clicking here;
Sincerely,
Australian Nostalgia Fuel Association - Pioneer Awards Organizing group.
Please note; These are NOMINATIONS only, NOT votes. So if a person gets nominated 1 or 50 times, it only counts as 1 nomination. As mentioned above, the process that the nominations will take after 31st July only allows for a single nomination.
2012 Pioneer Awards - Wrap
Pioneer Awards - presented by ANFA, Rocket, Cruzin and Sydney Dragway, 17th November 2012.
Well, the 2012 Pioneer Awards and Re-union is over and done for another year.
Around 300 people attended the evening to see some great past Champions receive their Pioneer Awards and have their names affixed to the wall at Sydney Dragway.
This year, the recipients were: Warren & Freddie Armour, Graham Hussey, Jim & Nelma Reed, Joe Gatt, John English, Dennis Syrmis and Bob & Maureen Dunn.
The evening had a little bit for everyone, with some quite emotional presentations and some damn righteous ones.
Dennis Walford found a Miss Valvoline from a 1965 pit shot for John English...well, it wasn't quite the glamour in the picture, far from it. But John and the crowd thought it was pretty humorous.
Gentlemen Jim Reed got to partake in a good glass of scotch on stage with one of his good friends, Dave Cook which continues a tradition both guys have had from way back.
Graham Hussey posed with some of the gladiator drivers and some of the new generation drivers, while Freddie Armour got to sit in a real life Cackle car at the end of the night courtesy of the Preen Family.
Bob and Maureen Dunn had a crew reunion on stage as well as kids and grand kids for a huge family picture.
An emotional presentation was made, first to Sue Syrmis on behalf of her husband Dennis Syrmis who has not been well of late to which the crowd responded with much love and warmth. Allan Burgers made the other emotional presentation to his good friend and fellow racer Joe Gatt. Joe had been through a pretty rough time as of late, and it was Al who was with him a lot of the way, so this presentation alone was special.
At the end of the presentations, a cackle was held to close out the evening. Many people stayed to sample the atmosphere that was thick in the air. There possibly has never been such a turnout of Drag Racing Royalty in the one place at the one time in recent memory.
It was agreed that this event has to occur yearly, as some who could not attend this past event are virtually hanging to next year. Several people had not seen each other for 20 to 30 years, and that is just not acceptable with the aging competitors from this great sport.
Don't forget to check out some of the pictures in our Gallery and also here from Steve Thomas.
Bring on 2013!
2012 Pioneer Awards and Reunion Update
Hi everybody,
Only a couple of weeks till the Awards and Reunion at Sydney Dragway.
I will note a lot of items here that may be of interest to you heading up to the event, then if there is anything to notify you about the week of the event, it will not be a long e-mail. As you may have noticed......I ramble on in my e-mails!....but everybody has a good indication of what is happening.
Firstly, we have had a few more people add their names to the Attendees list, which is enclosed.
John Maher, Bill Croft, Angelo Palumbo and Phil Olive have notified me this week that they will also be attending.
So, onto the small items that make up the event.
As you should have seen, the Rocket Day goes from 8am to about 2pm with a BBQ lunch and drinks as well. The car show alone is a huge deal.
The entry gates for the Awards and Reunion open at Sydney Dragway at 3pm. You are all welcome to attend from this time onwards. The track has made arrangements with the caterer to have some booths open and near to the marquee that we will be using. There will be a coffee stand, a cash bar and a Hot Dog-Pie stand for the NON BBQ people in attendance. These hopefully will be open till late.
Our BBQ will start about 5pm as with about 250 to 300 to feed, it will take this long to get the sausages cooked. There will be bottled water available, about 100, so if you choose to bring your own may be a good idea, alternatively the traders stands will have drinks. As the costs to hold this event have skyrocketed, we will be placing a ‘Gold Coin’ donation collection tin at the BBQ area. If you put some bucks in great, if you don’t that’s great also.
The track are supplying 15 tables with seating for 10 at each table, plus 50 extra chairs. As 7 tables will be reserved for the Award Recipients, it just may be a good idea to bring along a chair if practical.
Our Awards will start at 6.30pm and will take about 2 hours....don’t worry, it will go quick.
We will then have a cackle to set up the last part of the evening, which will be on stage...a fitting finale to the evening’s entertainment. 4 cackle cars will be in attendance to supply some aroma.
The ANFA will have embroidered event polo’s on display for after event delivery plus some ‘tin signs’ of the event and the Awards, only a handful of each at this stage.
Sue Syrmis is bringing some colour photo copies of the scrap books that she and Dennis kept of his career, and I have been privileged to have a sneak peek, and these are historical. John English’s wife documented ‘EVERYTHING’ that John accomplished through his career, and they too will have all of that on display. Several guys are bringing 70’s and 80’s memorabilia from rule books to pictures. Gentleman Jim Reed will also have a trunk load of memorabilia.
On Sunday, there will be a pretty huge car show in the pit area, an autograph session of our recipients and the racing will be set to kick off about Noon.
For those that haven’t been to the area before, Rocket Industries is located at 40 Huntingwood Drive
Huntingwood NSW 2148. Sydney Dragway is then located at Ferrers Road, Eastern Creek, NSW 2766, which is a 2 minute drive from Rocket.
So, hope we have covered it all for you. If there is something that you are not really sure about, send me an e-mail or call me on 04 024 55 555.
Yours Sincerely, Steve Turner...