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It was the second interstate circuit I ever saw... was where I had the best of times during International Series times... Tasman races etc, where I met and spent time with so many drivers.
And there was Sid. He owned and built the joint, he had his VIP room on the top side of the circuit and hosted his own little parties there during the race meetings.
Old Sid was great. He knew how to keep the interest up, but he hired others to run the place. I really don't think they were the right people... one of the things I looked forward to most when I went to Qld to live was seeing Sid in the VIP room.
But he wasn't there. He rarely made it to meetings in his last seven years or so. He had Shingles and that kept him at home. He did get there on very odd occasions, but his wife and daughter and the widow of Glynn Scott, Coral, really kept up the VIP's hospitality record... but they didn't replace Sid.
One day I rang him to talk about something. After finding out what I needed to know, we talked about what he wanted to talk about... his illness, including now Leukemia, and that he'd wanted to go and visit Dr. Nitschke in Darwin before the Government put a stop to his euthanasia project. Sid was in a bad way.
A little while later, one week or two, his wife rang to tell me he'd finally got that relief.
His testimony is Lakeside. A monument to his vision, his courage and his enthusiasm.
That cannot be allowed to die.
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