If you know Barry Habgood, you’ll know he’s never short of an opinion and well-known for expressing them, especially among friends and few ales at his Raleigh workshop.
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But a phone call last November left the 70 year-old mechanic speechless and even now has him shaking his head.
“Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) president, Andrew Papadopoulos, gave me a call … nothing unusual there,” Barry said.
“But then he said, “I’ve got some good news” … he told me I’d been awarded 2018 Scrutineer of the Year by the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the world governing body of motor sport.
“Well, I just couldn’t believe it … I really was speechless and Andrew’s on the end of the phone saying “Are you there Barry?”
“All I could say was “Really?!” … and then I spent the rest of the day wandering around the workshop thinking, “Seriously! This is an international award –there are thousands of people who are eligible, and here I am in Raleigh Industrial Estate, a member of the Coffs Harbour and District Sporting Car Club!”
This is an international award – there are thousands of people who are eligible, and here I am in Raleigh Industrial Estate
- Barry Habgood
As a non-motor sport person, naturally I ask Barry how it all came about … and as someone always happy to have a yarn, I settle back while he tells me …
Ever since he was a young fella, Barry was into rally driving, as a competitor (with little success), then a co-driver (with moderate success) and then as a scrutineer … a role he ‘kind of happened into’ about 30 years ago.
“I’m good mates with Bob Halpin and he was involved in the Southern Cross Rally out of Port Macquarie. I used to give him a hand setting up stages and I got to know more people in the scene. It was all really good fun.
“Around 1987 regulations around what sort of cars were eligible changed and from being relatively fast, cars started getting stupidly fast ... so the regulations changed to slow them down.
“This is when rallies really started needing scrutineers (the people who check competing cars before and after races) … Bob asked me if I was interested and I hesitated because I loved being on the road. But I finally agreed and became the Chief Scrutineer of the local Australian Rally Championship event. One thing led to another and I became the CAMS Australian Championships technical delegate.”
Annual invitations to Perth for the World Rally stage in the early 90s forged more connections leading to Barry being the chief scrutineer at many events, including the World Rally stage in Coffs Harbour in recent years.
“I guess these awards come about through longevity –hopefully you do a good job and maybe someone notices … I’m still quite stunned to tell you the truth.”
But I couldn’t leave it there – I wanted to know the real high points during his high octane career.
And that’s when he revealed who his real hero was: Ari Vatanen, the Finnish rally driver, who drove in 101 rallies for Ford, Peugeot, Subaru and more and was World Rally Champion in 1981.
“He was the fastest, most spectacular driver I’d ever seen. He was out here in 1976 driving a Ford Escort. Back then rallies were real marathons – you started at 10am and went through to midnight.
“It was late, we’d finished checking the course at Port Macquarie so we went out to watch the cars. We were tucked behind this huge stump on the road to Wauchope … it was a cresty course and you could just hear this car coming – bloody hell, he was unbelievable … he came around faster than anything I’d ever seen and then he disappeared into the night.”
Years later, in 2014, Ari was again in Australia, this time as the special guest at an Australian Rally Museum fundraiser.
“His speech was so funny and self-deprecating, you really warmed to him. Then the next day I got to have a ‘spirited’ demo run with him in an Audi Quatro Group B-rally car …
Barry’s face is alight: “Yep, I reckon that’s my stand-out moment.
And of being a rally car scrutineer: “It’s hard work at times, to stay abreast of the regulations and more recently I’ve been having input into changes to regulations.
“But you forget all that because it’s just such good fun and I’ve made so many good friends.
“Of course I know it has to come to an end … and it will be sad when it does.”
The award was accepted on Barry’s behalf at the FIA Awards in Geneva last year. It will be presented to him at the National Motor Sport Awards in Melbourne next month.
Also making the news:
Ute Schulenberg
Journalism was always my plan but plans being what they are, I did not get to realise it until my early 40s ... and have loved every minute since. For me community journalism is the most intimate and honest place to be in this field - telling the stories of people I live with, side-by-side, every day. It is an honour.
Journalism was always my plan but plans being what they are, I did not get to realise it until my early 40s ... and have loved every minute since. For me community journalism is the most intimate and honest place to be in this field - telling the stories of people I live with, side-by-side, every day. It is an honour.
