Veteran Dunedin to Brighton Rally. 18/01/2020
Thank you all for coming here today on the first day of summer to celebrate our brilliant Vintage fossil-fueled Heritage.
I am Cr. Lee Vandervis and on behalf of the Dunedin City Council I
welcome all Vintage car enthusiasts, and especially the car
owners/drivers and their understanding partners, without whom this
spectacular, fascinating and historic event would not be possible.
I would like to add personally that without the magnificent men who have
continuously evolved such fossil-fueled machines, our most healthy and
wealthy and numerous civilisation would not be possible.
I
have a bit of history here regarding the Veteran Dunedin to Brighton
Run, which has kindly been provided by one of the key organisers of this
annual event, Mr Mark Wilkinson. [Unless you have organised such a
public event, it is difficult to appreciate just how much focused
preparation and coordination goes into making it happen, so thank you
Mark and all the others who have cleared all the Health and Safety
hurdles to allow this assemblage of Magnificent Machines!]
The
Event started in 1955 after the Mayor at the time Sir Leonard Wright
wanted to have an event similar to the London to Brighton Run, which
then resulted in the Dunedin to Brighton Run being formed. At around the
same time it was decided by the city fathers to also run an Annual
Festival Week and the Brighton Run became one of the events that started
the festival. After the crowning of the Festival Queen the Mayor would
flag the vehicles away for the time trial to Brighton. The Dunedin to
Brighton Rally is the only surviving event from the Festival still
continuing and has run continually since.
The event is open to members of the Vintage Car Club of New Zealand with
vehicles registered on or before 31 December 1918 - therefore all the
vehicles are over 100 years old and this event is the oldest continuous
all-Veteran Rally in the Southern Hemisphere. One example of the
vehicles competing today is the 1900 Wolseley owned by Colin and Judy
Winter, the oldest privately-owned Wolseley in the world.
It
is testament to the members of the Dunedin Vintage Car Club that these
vehicles which were an important part of our history are still running
today and not sitting in museums, and long may this continue.
All the best to all participants, and may everybody enjoy this 66th Veteran Dunedin to Brighton Rally.
a wonderful turn-out of people and machines
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almost ready with Dougal Stevenson providing the informed commentary...
will it start?
and away they go...
and the last away one of the quickest, Alan Dippie and Dad in a French racing car...
a happy day with family fun - Lukas and Juliette :<)
Thanks again Lee for agreeing to be our
official starter this year. All the entrants enjoyed not only your
speech but also how you entered into the spirit of the day. It was
certainly the main topic at lunch.
Nicola Wilkinson says: 
