[Mad Mike]

Memorial Day is intended to be a time when we remember and honor ancestors, family members, loved ones, neighbors and friends who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our country. To me, this Memorial Day weekend will be that and very much more.

Memorial Day weekend 2002 marks the 20th anniversary of the day the sport I love more than any other truly grew up. It was the weekend we had our ignorant veil of invincibility lifted. It was the weekend that caused us to surround any thoughts of immortality inside a rally car with silence. It was the weekend that caused some competitors to reconsider their involvement and, with input from loved ones, choose to never compete again.

Never again would we hear the term, ?No one?s been killed in ProRally.?

While I hate risking the opening of old wounds, I?d hate it even more if ever we forgot. Woolf and Whittaker seemed certain to accomplish great things in rallying and they doubtless would have been great ambassadors for stateside rallying. Unfortunately, it wasn?t meant to be.

I invite you to pause at some point this weekend and devote a moment of silence, a prayer, toast with a lifted beer or make the tribute of your choice to two great fellow rallyists who we still miss. I am honored to have known them and am not ashamed to admit that remembering their loss still brings a tear to the eye.

http://www.rallyracingnews.com/scca/rally/woolfwhittaker.html
http://www.rallyracingnews.com/scca/rally/news682.html

http://www.realautosport.com/pics/Peug504/woolfy2.jpg

Godspeed, gentlemen ...

 

[rallytaff]

Pete Morris (building "Son of CoROLLa")Thanks Mike, you beat me to it, but you said it more eloquently than I could. Every time I pass the Veterans Cemetary in West LA and see all those thousands of graves I always say a thank you for what they sacrificed, we are here now and free.

 

[sandman]

Thanks for the reminder. It hardly seems like 20 years

 

[Mad Mike]

>Thanks for the reminder. It hardly seems like 20 years

Hardly does.

http://www.realautosport.com/pics/Peug504/woolfy1.jpg

Woolf & Whittaker at the '82 Northern Lights Rally, Houghton Lake, MI.

Halley ...
http://www.realautosport.com

 

[t0940ds]

Mike,

Think of what the Woolf and Whittaker Cups are to help us remember; The 1980 Golden West and the 1980 and 1981 Susquehannock Trail Rallies where John and Grant bested competitive fields, with smiles on their faces!

I still rmemmber the story Grant recounted of the trip to the 1982 Chisum Trail where "Pugnose" on the trailer passed the van on the expressway in the middle of the night when the hitch bolts came apart -- "OH #####!" quoth Grant, waking up the team. And the car and trailer slowly coasted to a safe stop in the median. Better it would have hit something and kept them out of the event.

 

[Mad Mike]

Thanks to Toni Shepherd keeping in touch with Carol these many years I received a note from Mrs. Judge (formely Carol Woolf) who resides in New Zealand with her husband Murray and their two daughters. She expressed how good it is to know that all their friends in the USA still think about John and Grant in such a neat way. She said John was never happier than when they were in the States.

I share this with the forum since I have received so many replies, notes and comments about Woolfy and Whittaker since Memorial Day. My thanks to Carol for the comforting note and to each of you who have shared your memories, tales and anecdotes about how the pair of New Zealanders touched so many lives.

I'll wrap this up with a quote from Carol's note: "It was a terrible accident and I still miss him after all these years but I like to think that John and Grant and Jon Woodner have got some big rally going on (in) the sky!"

I am quite sure they do ...

Halley ...
http://www.realautosport.com

 

[jss]

That's a great story about some great rallyists.

Remember the Mazda RX3 mentioned in the acticle? Well I see it driving
on the street every few days. A mechanic in a local repair/service
shop supposedly he found the car in Co. a few years ago. It's still
painted and stickered as it was last run. I don't know exactly how to
authenticate the car but the owner has no reason to make up the story.
The owner has left the odo and lights just as received. He mainly
drives ot around town but once in a while gets it near the dirt.

I gave him a ride in my "fire breather" and he became VERY EXCITED.
I'm trying to get him to interested in competing. Think about that...

Instead of an old driver coming out of the past, how about a historic
car making a come back?? Wouldn't that be great to see??? I hope...