Keith Alan Pritchard and Tim Linklater
The only names that stick in our mind are the two mates that died in the Ferrari F40 incident. Aside from the drivers, two other people died – the officials that manned the check point.
The reason these guys are on the “Rumours” page is that we heard, but cannot verify, the following:
The two mates were both members of the “HQ Club,” part of the Darwin Motor Sports Club. For those that may be reading this asking, “What the hell is a ‘HQ Club’,” let us start here:
From 1971 to 1974, Holden, an Australian car manufacturer, (Yes, Australia actually manufactured it’s own cars for many years.) released a model of car called the “Holden HQ.” The HQ covered a range of cars including the Belmont, the Kingswood, the Premier, the Monaro, and the Statesman. Basically if you had one, you could race it in the HQ Club.
Holden made 485,650 of these HQs, so there was quite a few around in their day. Nearly half a million of them graced the streets of Australia.
Rumour has it:
The police allowed all HQ Club members’ vehicles, registered for the road or not, to go into the funeral procession for these now decease local boys. Basically, if you belonged to the club and owned any Holden HQ, (race, track, or on road) for that one time, you could drive your car on the road as a mark of respect for the lads that died doing what they loved best. That was, “anything to do with cars.”
