I went to Cromwell yesterday for a meeting with Highlands owner Tony Quinn and manager Mike Sentch — the upshot of that meeting is that I have a contract to set up the museum that will be an integral part of this complex. I was first “approached” several weeks back but I didn’t think that it was the job for me. However, after seeing the rapid progress that’s being made on what will be the most outstanding motorsport complex in Australasia and meeting Tony Quinn, I unlocked my mind and realised that this is something that I will be enormously proud to be a part of.
It will almost be the culmination of 45 odd years of being a motorsport enthusiast, journalist and magazine publisher.
Construction of the stand-alone museum building is well advanced and will have room to display 25 to 30 key cars as well as the Hall of Fame — photographs and details of our top drivers in the various disciplines.
I have visited many car and motorsport museums around the world and in too many cases these are almost funereal places. Not at Highlands. This will not be a place of peace and quiet where people walk silently and talk in hushed tones. It will be a place that is bursting with the noise and action of the sport.
Apart from the cars and the Hall of Fame there will also be a data base giving information about New Zealand’s motorsport drivers, galleries of photographs and art, memorabilia, videos, interactive attractions, a library, a shop, cafe, function centre, member’s lounge and more.
It’s going to be a big job and one that I am really looking forward to getting stuck into.
Despite the high regard with which New Zealanders are held around the world, in this country, we have not ever really celebrated our history of the sport with a place like the Highlands museum will be.
