This article was written by Bill Sheehan on the occasion of our 10th Historic Winton, the same of course, applies today

It all started at the beginning.........

With Historic Winton celebrating its 10th annual meeting, it was inevitable that many would ask how it all began. As I seem to be the one given the credit (or is it the blame?) for starting the whole thing, here are a few memories.

Firstly, as very little these days is original, I must confess to copying the idea from the Historic Amaroo meeting in Sydney. Prior to that I had competed in, or had attended, meetings where vintage and historic events were just part of a full race program. They, particularly those interstate, were most enjoyable - not only for the chance at competition motoring but for the camaraderie and social atmosphere of the "old car set". Big crowd at the 26th 2002 Event

But it was the all-historic car and motorcycle meeting at Amaroo that was the mind boggler. I saw an instant need to have similar meetings in every state, spread evenly over the year.

The choice of circuit was all important - one where the spectators could see all of the action and where close racing could be enjoyed without it being too easy to hit anything hard, or each other. Winton seemed the obvious choice, particularly as it was roughly mid-distant between our racing fraternity in Sydney and in Adelaide. There was another reason of course - as I had spent most of my schooldays in Benalla, could I perhaps be accused of a little bias? At least I had the background to know that slotting Historic Winton between the other meetings and running the event in winter was not necessarily a great risk. Benalla usually enjoys good weather at this time of year and so far hasn't often let us down.

When I took my "plans" to the Vintage Sports Car Club I struck them at a bad time - they were running so many events for members like myself that they weren't confident of coping with the workload. I then approached my favourite club, the Austin 7 Club, and persuaded the committee that it was feasible to outlay something like $9000 of the members' money and get most of it back! (Funny how enthusiasm tends to ignore the risks and pitfalls).

Meantime, Wes Brown and the Hartwell Motor Cycle Club had learnt of our plans and were eager to organise the motorcycle part of the program for us - thank the Lord! After a few preliminary meetings with Hartwell we were off and running, Barry Fisher and I then led the team to "get the show onto the track". We must record our thanks to Mick Ronke of the Benalla Auto Club for help and advice, because though the A7C had run many Six Hour Relay races we still had a lot to learn.

The success of the first meeting relied on good entries and good weather. The entries were more than the usual worry because of a postal strike, but proved good - and fortunately Old Sol and the attending crowd did the right thing by us.

As we didn't have much to spend on publicity, we relied mainly on local advertising. Because also we were short on time and workforce to organise sponsorships, we organised (mostly free) efforts to give us publicity. We made life harder for ourselves by running three extra "events" to gain attention. One was a parade of competitors and other (old) cars through the streets of Benalla. I'm not sure how successful this was as most vehicles seemed to set off (and disappear) at 100mph! I'm not confident that too many of the local shoppers saw much at all. Next was a Concours at the circuit which included trophies and a parade around the circuit, which seemed to go over well with all concerned.

The piece-de-resistance was a marvellous display of stunt flying over the circuit by vintage aircraft (mostly from Drages' Air Museum at Wodonga), and to them I remain ever grateful for one of my most unforgettable moments. I suppose I'm grateful for another reason - it's easy to dream these ideas up, but they still have to work'

Not much mention is ever made of the effort required to put on a race meeting such as this - not only do we rely so heavily on support from club members but on those from other clubs. Remember, most support us voluntarily and those few who do receive expense money take only token compensation. It should be pointed out that the $9000 outlay originally required has risen in 10 years to over $20,000, so I hope that others are as appreciative as I am of the work, faith and risk that goes into making Historic Winton an actuality each year.

Long may it continue.

1st	1977	25th-26th June	13th	1989	27th-28th May	25th	2001	26th-27th May
2nd	1978	3rd-4th June	14th	1990	26th-27th May	26th	2002	25th-26th May
3rd	1979	2nd-3rd June	15th	1991	25th-26th May	27th	2003	*31st May-1st June
4th	1980	31st May-1st June	16th	1992	30th-31st May	28th	2004	29th-30th May
5th	1981	30th-31st May	17th	1993	29th-30th May	29th	2005	28th-29th May
6th	1982	29th-30th May	18th	1994	28th-29th May	30th	2006	27th-28th May
7th	1983	28th-29th May	19th	1995	27th-28th May	31st	2007	26th-27th May
8th	1984	26th-27th May	20th	1996	25th-26th May	32nd	2008	24th-25th May
9th	1985	25th-26th May	21st	1997	24th-25th May
10th	1986	24th-25th May	22nd	1998	30th-31st May
11th	1987	23rd-24th May	23rd	1999	29th-30th May
12th	1988	21st-22nd May	24th	2000	27th-28th May
a								*V8s kicked us out!