I had the wonderful experience of growing up in the Morrinsville area in the time of Ross Greenville, Dennis Marwood,
Spinner Black, Rex Hart and Bryan Innes etc. I used to hang around Spinner's shop on Thames Street and watch the likes of Greg Tordoff work their magic on anything that came through the door. Always a fun place to hear great stories and visits from Rod Coppins and Terry Scott etc.
I later went to Australia and England and worked at Trojan Works in Croydon in the Hewland transmission dept. as we
built the last of the Can Am cars and then F 5000 cars in 1973. We were also the Suzuki of GB distributor and had Barry Sheene as he was just starting out. I met my bride to be in London and came to California in 1974 and this is still home for us. My good friend Graham Donaldson got me to help with the Teddy Yip / Sid Taylor team that brought a Lola T330 to Long Beach, Laguna Seca and Riverside in late 1975 for the hugely talented Tony Brise to drive.
It was such a blow to lose both he and Graham Hill a month later.
Well that is enough about me. I never worked in the pits again but of course still follow racing. I feel very blessed to have grown up when and where I did.
Cheers,
Ken Hyndman