http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-national/ruddbank-will-keep-jobs-swan-20090318-91dz.html
"They know that if they exit Australia, there's a big, fat, bloated Ruddbank, a taxpayer-funded safety net that will take them out at full value."
- Helen Coonan - still an A-Grade Pratt.
Forget V8 Supercars, those dinosaurs of motoring, anyone who has a memory longer than 10 minutes will of course cast their minds back to the days when foreign machinery ruled the roost when turbo Sierras and Godzilla GTRs flew over the mountain. Dick Johnson's red Shell Sierras, GTRs of Skaife and Richards, Holden's first son Peter Brock twisted people's hearts by defecting to Ford, but none were as formidable as an ex-dairy farmer from Queensland, Kevin Rudd and his very own Ruddbank Sierra.
Who can forget when he came tantalisingly close to Bathurst glory in 1991 when 5 laps from home he had a turbocharger let go and the Ruddbank Sierra blowing a cloud of smoke down Conrod Straight, settled helplessly at the side of the track, while the GTRs flashed past and claimed victory? Few people could look away as Kevin Rudd and Win Percy traded paint around Symonds Plains lap after lap.
I guess that we never did find out why Kevin Rudd quit motor racing. Rumour said that he might be making a comeback two years ago when the Kevin 07 campaign was launched but sadly that was to become PM rather than another tilt at the mountain, but it is nice to see that Ruddbank is going to be relaunched.
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