fenderslash
26-12-04, 09:13
Hi all,
I was given the "Holden Racing Team Story" dvd for Christmas, as I'm sure many others who contribute to this forum were too, so I thought it would be a good topic for a thread here, considering HRT started its life with the Walky.
I actually have almost all the touring car championship and non-championship race telecasts in my home made video collection starting from 1983, so the on-track vision on the DVD was nothing I didn't already have scattered over many old tapes. But the DVD is worth owning for the current-day interviews with past and present team personnel about the team's history. And of course, it is good to have all the race highlights collected onto one video too. There's a great bit of footage of Neil Crompton in the Walky in 1989 or 90 doing a race-cam crossover as he's belting around Mt Panorama at full tilt, bitching about every little bump and grind!
My main gripe with the DVD is that it paints a too-rosy picture of what was happening behind the scenes. Although it's not afraid to show warts-and-all the on-track failures as well as successes, it doesn't do the same with what was happening in the background. Off the top of my head I recall that names like Mezera, Brock and Lowndes left the team with varying amounts of sour feelings, but the impression the DVD gives is that it was all never anything apart from happy-families with everyone. For example, they have the audacity to (desevedly) praise Mezera for all the good work he did as team manager in pulling the team together during it's worst times and setting it up for it's future success, but they don't finish that off by saying "Oh, and by the way, after he did that we showed him the door". The only people who cop a bucketing are Wayne Gardner (by the naration) and Tom Walkinshaw (by Larry Perkins).
My other little gripe is that there were a few drivers who were notable by their absence from the modern-day interviews about the team's history. I mean, what's a history of HRT without an interview with Lowndes or Gricey? I suspect Lowndes couldn't because of his ties with Ford (I'm sure they woudn't want him talking about his domination in Holdens when he's done little else but lose miserably in Fords), but as a Walky owner I would love to hear from Grice (and Win Percy too) about his perspective on the early days. Now that I think of it, he didn't even contribute to an in-depth article about HRT's 1990 Bathurst win in a recent edition of "Australian Muscle Car" either. On the plus side there is a good interview with Larry Perkins on the DVD about when he ran the team at the very beginning. I'm also thinking how interesting an interview with Walkinshaw himself would be, especially if pressed about his "contribution" to the 1988 Bathurst 1000...
I don't want to turn anyone who hasn't got the DVD yet off buying it, because it is enjoyable to watch. Just don't expect anything too in-depth. It's a good race highlights package with some good interviews that will leave you wishing for more.
I was given the "Holden Racing Team Story" dvd for Christmas, as I'm sure many others who contribute to this forum were too, so I thought it would be a good topic for a thread here, considering HRT started its life with the Walky.
I actually have almost all the touring car championship and non-championship race telecasts in my home made video collection starting from 1983, so the on-track vision on the DVD was nothing I didn't already have scattered over many old tapes. But the DVD is worth owning for the current-day interviews with past and present team personnel about the team's history. And of course, it is good to have all the race highlights collected onto one video too. There's a great bit of footage of Neil Crompton in the Walky in 1989 or 90 doing a race-cam crossover as he's belting around Mt Panorama at full tilt, bitching about every little bump and grind!
My main gripe with the DVD is that it paints a too-rosy picture of what was happening behind the scenes. Although it's not afraid to show warts-and-all the on-track failures as well as successes, it doesn't do the same with what was happening in the background. Off the top of my head I recall that names like Mezera, Brock and Lowndes left the team with varying amounts of sour feelings, but the impression the DVD gives is that it was all never anything apart from happy-families with everyone. For example, they have the audacity to (desevedly) praise Mezera for all the good work he did as team manager in pulling the team together during it's worst times and setting it up for it's future success, but they don't finish that off by saying "Oh, and by the way, after he did that we showed him the door". The only people who cop a bucketing are Wayne Gardner (by the naration) and Tom Walkinshaw (by Larry Perkins).
My other little gripe is that there were a few drivers who were notable by their absence from the modern-day interviews about the team's history. I mean, what's a history of HRT without an interview with Lowndes or Gricey? I suspect Lowndes couldn't because of his ties with Ford (I'm sure they woudn't want him talking about his domination in Holdens when he's done little else but lose miserably in Fords), but as a Walky owner I would love to hear from Grice (and Win Percy too) about his perspective on the early days. Now that I think of it, he didn't even contribute to an in-depth article about HRT's 1990 Bathurst win in a recent edition of "Australian Muscle Car" either. On the plus side there is a good interview with Larry Perkins on the DVD about when he ran the team at the very beginning. I'm also thinking how interesting an interview with Walkinshaw himself would be, especially if pressed about his "contribution" to the 1988 Bathurst 1000...
I don't want to turn anyone who hasn't got the DVD yet off buying it, because it is enjoyable to watch. Just don't expect anything too in-depth. It's a good race highlights package with some good interviews that will leave you wishing for more.