they are clear pictures Mark for a website or yours?. how many meetings did you go to at that circuit. Did you also go to Warwick Farm? and any other older tracks?
Some of the photos are mine and others courtesy of Mr Google, Shane. I don't think I missed too many meetings at Catalina, before I got my licence and a car we used to leave home at 4am, catch a bus to Central Railway station and catch a train to Katoomba. More times than not, we'd then sit in the dense fog until it lifted at around 11am and they could start the races. We also rarely missed a Warwick Farm meeting, early on my Dad would take me and he'd flash his police badge to get us into the pits to see his mate Max Stewart who drove open wheelers and to me it was like meeting Stirling Moss, it was so glamorous and exciting. Later when we got our own cars we'd always end up at Creek Corner which was like being on the Hill at the SCG or Bay 13 at the MCG, it was the hoon capital of the world...the press called the Creek Corner spectators Creek Corner Cretins in an article and it stuck to the point that some had Creek Corner Cretin t shirts. My mate always took a large family sized Custard Tart just to throw at people and others would throw rotten fruit, eggs and even the occasional turd.....it was that kind of place
. Like Catalina, Warwick Farm is still essentially there but parts of it were built over for extensions to the horse race track a few years ago. Seeing F1 superstar Jochen Rindt equal Jim Clarks lap record in the pissing wet, full fields of top line Formula 1 racers in works F1 cars dicing for the Tasman Series, the great Beechey, Geohegan, Jane (and others) V8 touring car wars in the late 60's and a young Alan Moffat dicing with Jim McKeon in their Lotus Cortinas were brilliant sights that can never be repeated. It was genuinely one of the great tracks of the world and a tragedy it was closed before its use by date.
Warwick Farm Formula One Tasman Series 1971 with 1000 Creek Corner Cretins in the background.
