PORT HEDLAND (WA)
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previous year www.speedwayandroadracehistory.com/port-hedland-pippingarra-1987.html
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PIPPINGARRA SPEEDWAY 1988
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1988 - PORT HEDLAND SPEEDWAY WEST AUSTRALIAN MODIFIED SEDAN CHAMPIONSHIP April 1988.Competitors traveled from all corners of the state for this event such as Esperance, Bunbury, Albany, Norseman, Leonora, Broome an Karratha, Port Hedlands hopes rested with two locals in Mike Pickering and Mick Findlay, The current West Australian Champion Darrel Thomson from Bunbury was there in his famed Honda Civic along with Greg Freeman in a very quick Torana also from Bunbury, Peter Theyer in a Torana, after a fantastic run at the National Title the week before.
The G&R Auto Clean team owned by Albany bussiness man Frank Larozo hired a Auto Trans truck to bring all of his sponsored cars up, which included Wayne Watsons Torana and a new Commodore that Frank brought of Bob Worling after the National Title, Mike Kinnear got the job of driving that one, Geoff Williams in the Screamon Demon Torana and Neil Johnson from the Goldfields in a very quick Cortina, just to mention a few.
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Brian Moyle recalls: The National Modified Title had just been held in Albany the week before and we had to turn the car around and get to Port Hedland ASAP, It was planned that Bill Broune from Picton Steel and his wife would tow the race car up the partially flooded North West Highway, This was nearly a fatal plan as the race car and trailer was washed of the road at a fast flowing floodway, The Tow Car was only partially washed away an resting against some small tree's, Bill managed to rig up some
tackle and winch the lot to safety, We being Greg Freeman, Geoff Lane, and myself would do the inland road through Cue and Newman in Geoff's Fairlane cruiser, What a trip, the new sealed road between Newman and Port Hedland was still under construction, so we had to do the whole stretch on a one lane sandy side track that was often flooded.
When we arrived in Port Hedland we were put up by the Warnock family at Cook Point, Wayne Warnock was the manager of Mount Newman Mining at the time.
While at official practice prior to the title Greg got a bit high through turns three and four and rubbed the wall, We spent the following day repairing the car at Pilbara Radiators workshop.
We managed to get through the title OK to finish second to Darrel, Then it was time to party, and we did, we hooked up with Laurel and Theo who lived on site at the speedway as caretakers, Laurel raced a stocky and Theo built and maintained quite a few cars around the place, also Dave from Pilbarra Radiators was with us until sun up, Dont recall much about the trip home, except the big session with some of the Cue locals at the Pub, My greatest times in speedway have been on road trips with mates and meeting more.
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1988 - A freshly graded road for a change. Photo: Brian Moyle.
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1988 - PETER THEYER Modified Sedan's
1988 - Peter Theyer from the Albany club made the long trek to Port Hedland for the title but was unable to compete due to a problem with the engine, Peter was in red hot form after his podium finish at the National Title in the weeks leading up, He was more than capable of taking this one up to Darrel, Greg and Mike. Photo's: Peter Theyer.
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1988 - PIPPINGARRA SPEEDWAY - G&R AUTO CLEAN TEAM
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1988 - DARREL THOMSON & GREG FREEMAN
