13 May 2007

Acknowledgements - Taken from the book

(Thanks for helping me to capture the Mini Memories!)


Without support, a project like this would never have gotten off the ground. I was very fortunate to find widespread support and assistance from many Mini experts, racing drivers, enthusiasts, friends and family. The first attempt to capture the Mini's history in South Africa was published in August 2003 under the title "The History (or some of it) of Minis in South Africa". This was a 53-pager, low budget, self-financed, black and white publication, something of a Mini time-line in South Africa. Brian Hastie was at the time part of MINI Division at BMW South Africa and they bought some fifty copies of the booklet for distribution among their Dealer Principals at their annual convention. The "buzz" (to use Brian's words) the booklet caused among these delegates at their convention, made them decide to offer tangible support to produce "the real thing." One part of this support was to make an Italian Job MINI available to me to visit former Mini racing drivers in Cape Town and Durban. Brian's support was dearly missed when he left the MINI scene. Fortunately, the reception this booklet received and the encouragement from friends and family, soon got me back into research and a very interesting and gratifying three years followed.

I spent endless hours in the National Library working through old motoring magazines and in Motor Sport SA's archives for racing results, road tests, price and production lists, but soon realised that other avenues, less conventional approaches, also had to be explored. I started to track down and visit former Mini racing drivers and fortunately for me Andy Terlouw, Jimmy and Ann Burt and Fanie and Marge Viljoen were among the first that I visited. All of them kept excellent scrap books, photo albums, newspaper clippings, race programs and some race results. It became clear that this was the way to go if you were serious to get your hands on Mini information that was generated 45 years earlier. In early 2004, I visited nine former Mini racing drivers in Cape Town, three along the Garden Route, one in East London and eight in Durban. Back in Gauteng I managed to get in touch with several more and eventually collected information from about sixty of these former Mini racing drivers. Three were in their mid eighties, several in their seventies, all very helpful and special people. I also tracked Adrian Woodley down in Qatar and Trevor Noble in Belgium. My sincere thanks to all these Mini racing drivers who were willing to meet with me, shared their precious Mini Memories with me and made their highly treasured scrap books, pictures, racing programmes etc. available to me to do research on the history of the Mini in South Africa. Most of them signed the "Thanks for the Mini Memories" inner cover page.

I also soon realised that the richness of the South African Mini Story and the Mini's history in competition in South Africa, would not allow only one book to cover both themes. Racing records of 758 Mini racing drivers were collected which cover a total of 4045 race entries of which 2905 are actual results recorded and the rest evidence of participation, but with the actual result unknown. Minis scored at least 912 Class wins and held their respective Class lap record on at least 71 occasions. I have already completed more than 80% of this separate book on the history of the Mini in Competition in South Africa. Hopefully the present book will pave the way for the publication of the second book on the South African Mini in Competition Story and hopefully some sponsorship to do it. I have however, included in this book, some short sections on racing and rallying results of the most prominent Mini racing drivers in particular models. All those drivers who are not mentioned in this book, will feature in the Mini in Competition version later.

The biggest source of Mini information, pictures, background (and just as important, who became a close friend through this project) was Ralph Clarke, Engineering Manager at the BMC Blackheath plant since 1955. How kindly has God smiled on my Mini project by letting Rodney Norton bring me in touch with his fellow MG nut, Ralph Clarke. Ralph and Hilda Clarke received me in their home and friendship circle from day 1 and without Ralph's support, this version of the Mini Story would have been much, very much, thinner. In a way I see myself as Ralph's apprentice, who, through the information of the master artisan, told the South African Mini Story that Ralph could not attend to due to his many other projects. It was indeed a privilege to have been entrusted with the information, pictures and literature to put this rather comprehensive Mini in South Africa Story together.

Another group of people who were pivotal in telling the South African Mini Story through their pictures, are the many photographers who often did not bother to put their details on the back of the fabulous pictures they took on Mini and South African racing history. Thanks for the Mini Memories to all the photographers who took all these remarkable pictures of Minis over the years, making a pictorial South African Mini Story possible. Where it was possible to identify the photographer, acknowledgement was given in the text but unfortunately most pictures fell into the category where I could not identify the photographer. Especially to these photographers, I wish to acknowledge your professionalism and your unsung contribution to tell a more comprehensive South African Mini Story. We pay tribute to you with a "Thanks for the Pictorial Mini Memories!"

Picture: This is the inside front cover of the book showing how much of a personal touch Ryno has put into the project with many signatures included from all the contributors.

Motoring journals have made a huge contribution in assisting me to capture and verify the South African Mini Story. CAR and Motoring Mirror in particular, but also the smaller and sometimes short-lived, and Afrikaans South African motoring journals, left us with a wealth of information, pictures, road tests, model descriptions and launches, sales figures and model prices, without which it would not have been possible to tell the South African Mini Story. Thanks for your contribution.

Researching and writing a story is a rather lonely experience. Fortunately, I could rely on close friends to task them with the request to read the draft of the South African Mini Story and to help me refine it. My long standing friend in America, Charles Heleker, put on hold all he was doing at the time to work through the text and advise me on areas for improvement. Although his work load did not allow him to review all the chapters, he made a very significant contribution to clean up at least nine of the chapters. His assistance and input is highly appreciated. Other close friends were also involved in reviewing the text, such as Ralph Clarke, Paul le Roy, Hennie Strauss, Fanie Viljoen, Mike Whitfield, who all read through the draft, help me fine tune the language, assist with consistency and correctness of facts and technical detail and flow of the text. Their inputs are highly appreciated but I still take full accountability for any mistakes that remained in the text. I also wish to acknowledge Hennie Strauss' support and assistance in other dimensions of the project. It started with a visit on his expense to Durban over a weekend to scan copies of Full Throttle, the N.M.C.C. monthly newsletter. A second visit was required to finish the job but Hennie kindly arranged for a courier to bring the books to me in Centurion and to safely get them back to Colin Downie in Durban from whom we borrowed it. He also played a pivotal role in getting my book printed.

Some of my children also took a keen interest in the project and got involved in their own ways. My daughter Nolene Oosthuizen in Cape Town became my local "agent" in the South, visiting racing drivers on my behalf and especially taking care that entrusted personal Mini documents were safely and timeously returned to their Mini Memory Makers. My other daughter Antoinette Labuschagne, took numerous pictures of special Minis that we discovered in Gauteng Province and elsewhere.

My sincere thanks also to the Mini Owners Club of Southern Africa (MOCSA) and their executive committee, Marlene le Roy, Paul le Roy, Frank van der Meer, Johan van der Merwe and Bobby Hookins. I always enjoyed their full support and encouragement to complete this project.

And then to my wife Ella. I'm never sure whether she has really embraced this Mini passion thing only to support me or whether she truly enjoys the fun that goes with a Mini and Mini history. Whatever, her support and tolerance was something very special, encouraging me to put this record of the South African Mini history together. May we still have the opportunity to create many a Mini Memory together.

Ryno Verster