Sad news to hear Roly has passed.

My meeting Roly was fairly brief, but interesting for me. It was the 1st of the now bi-annual Tasman Revival's at Eastern Creek in Dec 2006 that I got to meet him. He was there with the NZ contingent of drivers, including Jim Palmer, Dennis Marwood, Kenny Smith and Bill Stone. They each signed my copy of 'The New Zealand Grand Prix Annual, 1960 -61' - mainly because it was the only NZ item I had with me that day. If memory serves me correct, he was also there with family members - two daughters??

What sticks in my mind during that meeting was both Roly and Kenny Smith taking keen interest in the front LH upright area of the then late John Dawson-Damer Lotus 25. Roly had made a repair to this area of the car when it was still raced in NZ and it was Kenny that sold J D-D the car. That day at Eastern Creek, Kenny was still well pleased that he had received $50K from J D-D, having paid $8000 for it. And wondered what it was worth as it stood before us at EC in its restored state.

What surprises me is to read Roly was 88, I simply didn't realise that 7 years ago he was in his 80's then. My condolences to Roly's family and friends.

Stephen