Throw Back Thursday – Dateline 1976
From JMC News magazine, Jan/Feb 1976: “A record number of entries (51, of which 47 actually started) were gathered at Albion Heights, off St. Thomas main road, and the hills were reverberating with the sounds of revved engines including the single-seater racing cars of Messrs. Machado, Wade and D’Oyen. Everyone was waiting to see the performance of Witty’s new Works Toyota and the clash between himself and no. 79 Trevor Hamilton’s Mini Special was expected to be the highlight of the day.”
“Trevor ran first and turned in 1:47.9; Witty then went and turned in a tremendous 1:39.0 and it was all over bar the shouting, or so most of us thought. The Toyota is literally brand new and Witty figured that he would forgo his second run and give himself more time to run in the car – lo and behold Trevor came through with a magnificent 1:38.6 and the call went out, “Witty, you have to run again!”
” “…Go”, and the Toyota set off. Up at the finishing line the tension was near unbearable. With one minute fifteen seconds gone, no sound of the Toyota could be heard in the still mountain air. At one minute thirty seconds I heard someone say “…he can’t do it…” – there was still no sound of the car. (To appreciate the importance of the sound, the way the acoustics were at the finish one began to hear the cars when they were approximately a quarter of a mile away from the top, which meant a hard right-hander, a S bend, a left-hander, another right-hander and a yump to the finish, were still to be completed.)
1:31.0, nothing. 1:32.0 and an engine under heavy strain could just be heard in the distance and the countdown started. 1:33.0; 1:34.0; 1:35.0, no Toyota in sight; 1:36.0 and there was suddenly a white car flying through the air, leaning heavily toward one side, blue smoke being emitted from the tyres and exhaust; 1:37.0, 1:37.5; 1:37.9 and “He’s over” … a fantastic finish and a fantastic motorcar/driver combination.”
Pictured: Colin Whittingham on his way to class and overall victory in the Uni-Motors Works Toyota Levin.
