Held at Burnside Uniting Church, Corner Fisher and Portrush Roads
7.30pm November 6: SOUTH AUSTRALIAN MOTOR RACING 1902-1961 Richard Maerschel
This title implies a narrow view of car and motorbike racing, beginning at Adelaide Oval in 1902 and ending at Mallala in 1961. However, the talk will cover a much broader scope – a common theme will be the thrill of the wind in your face and seeing the world pass at an exciting speed. That scope will also include the skills needed by both drivers and navigators in car rallies, driving through unfamiliar, scantily populated territory with rudimentary maps, looking for planted clues as to where to turn to find the next check-in point.
Then there were the pioneers, the creators of motor vehicles on two, three and four wheels, most of whom were active members of the League of Wheelmen, an illustrious fraternity of racing pushbike riders. Designing and building motor cars sprang up and almost died within about five years when makers, backyarders working alone, were overrun by a vastly bigger and expanding industry in France, England and America whose products landed on our wharves advanced in ways not dreamed of here. But, while motor cars, bikes and trucks for everyday use became an import and distribution business, racing cars and bikes remained a core activity for a few remarkably inventive and industrious South Australians.
Speaker: Richard Maerschel’s professional career has been as a troubleshooting chemist, mainly in Adelaide and Sydney, but he grew up in a motoring family. In 1855 his great-grandfather built the first house and cartwright/wheelwright business in what is now Birdwood, and in 1919 his son turned that into the first Ford dealership outside of Adelaide, selling cars from northwest Victoria to northwest WA. Richard’s father and uncles were the mainstay of that business until his father turned to farming, where Richard was raised. The family’s move to Adelaide ended 112 years and four generations living in and around Birdwood.