By David Ward
Heaving a football way down the
field as you are about to be, and then are proceeded to be, hit hard into
the ground, vision taken away from your intended target as you try and break
your fall. All you have now is your ears to try and decipher what happened
to that pass. You hear silence, then gasps, then a cheer you think might be
coming from your sideline and team-mates. But you are not entirely sure.
Next you know you are being picked up off the turf by team-mates with big
smiles and words of praise. I guess it must have hit it's target.
This is a parallel experience to what I felt on the weekend during part of
the Ken Ward Trophy race....
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Photo by Patrich Ilufi |
The plan was to meet my sister, Danielle, at the event. It was suggested we
arrive around 3pm. I got there at 2:40pm and found Danielle had arrived not
long before. There was mention that the "Sc" class [the class with all the
Porches I have watched race around the track easily during Dad's race in
previous years] had been moved to a different race on Sunday and thus there
was a real opportunity that a Morgan could win Dad's race. Our Aunty, Diane,
said to me on the phone as we signed off just before the race "Let me know
if a Morgan wins". That wasn't the only time something like that was said to
me leading up to the race. Mark Alchin also had the same sentiments, talking
with an excited hope that a Morgan would get up this fateful day. Mark told
me we have two on the starting grid, one with a particularly good
opportunity to make a run at it.
Not being familiar with car racing
and all, I didn't know what to expect, and so I was in the dark as to what
the realistic expectations were. The race started and the white Morgan in
Number 40 was near the leaders early on. Laps into the race, positions
settled and Geoff Williams [who I found out was driving that white Morgan
wearing the number 40, lucky for a guide] was in 3rd place, or so I thought.
With lapping going on, my sister and I were a little confused if we were
indeed in 3rd place. So we followed along, hoping that we had this right,
but not sure. My sister and I both agreed the we were visually impressed
with the other Morgan in the race, number 39 driven by Graeme.
Coming
down the windy hill that Dad's ashes were scattered on, the top 3 were all
close together and Geoff was tight on the heels of the 2nd place car. The
leader spun out, Geoff handled the incident well and number 2 and number 3
were now number 1 and number 2, so we thought. This was a good thing for
Team Morgan. A few more laps and cars were mixing into make the track one
long worm of cars. Then suddenly, down the straight comes our now cherished
Morgan and driver, in first place!! Not wanting to get carried away with
something not true, I rang Mark, who was at the track somewhere, to verify
the status our #40. Yep, we were in first place! WOW! This was getting
exciting for us now we knew for sure that we were not cheering a fictitious
success.
Now with purpose, I was holding
tight, not wanting to jinx anything unforeseen to happen for the remaining
few laps. Geoff was never challenged and held on for the win. Team Morgan
wins the Ken Ward Memorial race! Holy moly! I was excited [more than I
expected], along with Danielle and also Diane and my girlfriend Yasmin who I
rang after the race to inform them of the result.
If was great to see a Morgan win
Dad's memorial race. Very fitting. My sister and I really enjoyed the
afternoon and the win just capped that off.
Thanks to the HSRCA and the Morgan
Car Club for having us and also to the many people who gave us kind words at
the trophy presentation.
David Ward
May 2010
Footnote:
I was so thrilled to win this
race and to receive the Ken Ward Trophy from Danielle and David. This year
the HSRCA changed the format to the older Group Sa and Sb cars and
eliminated the driver change of previous years. The 20 laps were hard work
with some close battles along the way - basically I had to drive it like I
stole it the whole race. Ken always watched Morgans race when he could be at
the track and he would have loved this one. The Morgan's engine has now
completed 8 years of competition and is down a bit on power - she is now
going to get a much deserved engine freshen up (before it blows up!). Geoff
Williams, "69 Plus 8.
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