Club President Howden Ganley told the story of the Tasman Series when Peter Gethin and Teddy Pilette ran two of the Team VDS F5000’s.
“ They arrived at Teretonga where there is the famous beach where Bert Munro tested what became the World’s Fastest Indian, a story which was later made into a movie.
“Peter and Teddy took their rental cars on to the beach and started playing around and racing each other. However, Peter went a bit too far and when he spun it on the wet sand it began to sink with the tide coming in.
“Both of them were trying to unstick the car, Peter took off his tee shirt and put it under the wheels but he still couldn’t get any grip. Now the tide is coming in fast and clearly they were in deep doodoo. Peter said the tide finally sucked the car out to sea and he and Teddy watched it roll over and over in the waves. Now they had to go back to Count van Der Stratten, the owner of the team and owner of the famous Stella Artois brewery, and confess they had lost the hire car and he was not pleased”.
“ When they made the movie “The World’s Fastest Indian.” I thought it was a story about an Indian on a horse but it was about this Indian motorcycle that Bert Munro developed with a streamlined bodywork. He took it to Bonneville when he was about 75 years of age and broke some records. It is a great film with Anthony Hopkins playing Bert Munro.
“The film was made by Roger Donaldson who at the moment is working on a feature documentary about Bruce McLaren and with Wally Wilmott we have been helping him. Roger did some filming at Goodwood and at the old McLaren shop where the first McLaren Formula 1 car was built. He has backing from the New Zealand Film Board and the film is due out later this year”,