Don’t worry, I’m not going to go all maudlin on you this week, though the subject of my column is, indeed, that of ‘getting older.’ The headline, however, comes from a fantastic ‘Dunedin Sound’ compilation album called ‘Getting Older’ put out by then Christchurch-based record label Flying Nun back in 1991.
Who, if you are of a certain age and lived in Dunedin through the late 1970s and early ‘80s, could forget – for instance – the seminal song-writing talent, (general lack of) guitar-playing prowess and anarchic (on and off) stage antics of bands like The Enemy, The Clean and a fledgling Straitjacket Fits at The Empire Tavern on Princes St or (during O week) the University Students Assoc. Hall off Cumberland St.
I had moved on (from Dunedin, from Uni and in life in general) by the time ‘Getting Older’ was finally released. But even ten years on, songs like the manic, rollicking ‘Pyromaniac’ by The Verlaines, the urgent, incendiary ‘Dialling a Prayer’ by Straitjacket Fits and the sweet wistfulness of ‘Not Given Lightly’ by Chris Knox, resonated with the same kind of restless, unfocused, almost anti-energy (if there is such a thing) that typified the music that – literally – put the city on the global alternative music map in the early 1980s.
I was – let’s see – 32 at the time (1991) ‘Getting Older’ was released and still considered the world my oyster. In a funny kind of way I still do, though I am now at least aware that (individual) life does not go on, and on, and on (copyright The Chills’ Martin Phillips!) for ever, and that with each passing year the clock seems to tick louder and louder.
Not that Kenneth James Smith (bet you were wondering how and when I was going to introduce motor racing into what was reading more and more like a music column, weren’t you? ) seems to notice.
Now 77-years-of-age, Ken has just signed off his 61st consecutive season competing at a National level here in New Zealand, by winning his sixth SAS Autoparts MSC NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series title.
He’s done it in style too, setting pole position and winning 12 of the 15 races, and only conceding the three others to impressive young rival Michael Collins (McRae GM1) at his (Collins’) home track, Christchurch’s Mike Pero Motorsport Park.
Along the way Smith successfully re-claimed the F5000 category – and outright – lap record at Hampton Downs at the big Speedworks Motorsport NZ Championship/HRC Events NZ Motor Cup meeting at the end of January, bettering the existing mark – a 59.483 set by fellow F5000 category fast man Michael Lyons (Lola T400) from the UK back in 2014, by 0:039 of a second with a best lap of 59.444 in the second race of the weekend on the Sunday morning.
Which is incredibly impressive in its own right. Particularly for someone, who – let’s not beat about the bush here – suffered from angina for several years before having triple bypass heart surgery back in 1987.
I, ahheemm, was the reporter who ‘broke’ the story (when I worked on the sadly short-lived Auckland Sun newspaper) so I have a better idea than most how big a deal both the op and it’s aftermath, were at the time.
These days you hear of people back at work and/or back into training for things like the annual Taupo Ironman Triathlon after undergoing bypass surgery. But back in the late 1980s the medical profession was at its risk-averse best and (bless him) the only thing Ken was really worried about re ‘his story’ going public was that Motorsport NZ would refuse to renew his competition licence.
Despite that, and the insertion of several stents to support his coronary arteries, over the years the man I always refer to in first instance as ‘Mr Smith’ is arguably in better shape now physically than he was in his 30s and definitely his 40s. And as someone said in the media room at Hampton Downs over the weekend the Health Department/Retirement Commission/Aged Concern Groups etc etc should put Smith ‘on their books’ to visit retirement homes around the country to prove what a difference to your physical and mental well-being staying focused and remaining active and engaged can make as you are ‘Getting Older.’
I couldn’t agree more, though if someone told me they wanted to get in touch and talk to Ken my answer would be ‘good luck’ because the little bugger is always so busy.
Take the season just gone. As well as his by now very familiar ex Danny Ongais Lola T332 F5000 car, Smith has raced his Swift DB4 in Matos Formula Libre class races at Hampton Downs and one of he new FT-50 TRS cars in his 48th start in the New Zealand Grand Prix. He has also bought and helped set up a new Formula (Ford) to help show the local association the way forward for its Formula 1600 category.
Which – you would imagine – would have most 77-year-olds sneaking off for a mid-afternoon kip. Not our Mr Smith though. Oh no! He continues to mentor young drivers like Liam Lawson (who he memorably loaned a helmet to when the former karter outgrew his own mid-way through his first Formula Ford season and funds were running short) and Tom Alexander, the latter using the new ECB SuperUtes Series across the Tasman to try and eventually snare a drive in a Supercar.
Then there is the Ken Smith Motorsport ‘shed,’ an industrial unit at Hampton Downs where, on the mezzanine floor, the company’s proprietor is in the process of setting up a shrine of sorts to motor racing here from the late 40s to the present day.
The last time I was there Smith was well on his way to hanging photos of EVERY car he has ever raced on the walls (I can’t remember the exact figure but it was a lot more than I initially would have thought) while at the same time trying to sift through boxes of race event memorabilia which he has started what I can only describe as a one-man mission to save from being taken to ‘the tip.’
That it is hardly a job for New Zealand’s foremost domestic single-seater racer to take on hasn’t appeared to enter his head though. Simply put, Smith loves anything and everything to do with his sport – and as he said, ‘no other bastard wants it and too much of this sort of stuff has already been chucked away.’
As it continues to spiral down the rabbit hole that is tabloid ‘journalism’ the mass media loves labelling anyone and everyone a ‘hero’ or ‘legend,’ in so doing demeaning both the term and those so annointed.
If there was one at Hampton Downs over the weekend though it was Kenneth James Smith, but not (at least not just) for the reasons you might think….(you know, pole, leading each SAS Autoparts MSC F5000 series race from start to finish to claim a record-extending sixth category title).
Nope.
In my humble opinion it was because of what he said on being awarded the ‘Alain Prost Trophy’ (for winning the final 12-lap F5000 feature race on Sunday afternoon) by fellow New Zealand motor racing great Graham McRae.
Now 79, McRae was the dominant figure in the Formula 5000 category through the early 1970s, winning the original Tasman Series three years in a row (1971, 1972 and 1973) and also the 1972 L&M Continental 5000 Championship in the United States in cars of his own design.
He also qualified for and started the 1973 British Formula 1 Grand Prix in a Cosworth-powered Iso-Marlboro entered by Frank Williams and won the Rookie of The Year award at the Indianapolis 500 the same year.
Ill-health has also plagued McRae in recent years but Garry Pedersen and Brian Lawrence persuaded him to join them at the track and he did.
Unlike McRae, who eventually retired from full-time driving to focus on designing and building racing cars, Smith never really stopped driving, to the point were he is revered and respected not just at home but all over the world for his extraordinary abilities behind the wheel.
I’m sure he knows it too, yet when it came time to say a few words, they were about Graham rather than himself.
‘It’s an honour to be presented with this trophy by someone who I rate as one of the best Formula 5000 drivers ever,” he said of his respected former rival as the pair were surrounded by well-wishers at an impromptu function in the pit lane.
Legend. Pure legend!
And an inspiration to everyone as we are ‘Getting Older.’
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