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THE GREATEST YEAR EVER

1969 - The Greatest Year Ever?

By Bruce Williams

1969 - The Greatest Year Ever?

The Greatest Year Ever

Has there ever been a bigger year in human history than 1969?

By MARK FOGARTY

It was the year that man landed on the moon. The greatest moment of the greatest year in human history.

That alone would immortalise ’69. But it was also the end of a tumultuous decade of unprecedented social upheaval and technological change.

The sexual revolution, American civil rights, a new era in aviation and, in motor racing, iconic cars here and abroad.

As well as the Apollo 11 Moon landing, which happened on this day 50 years ago, there was the first flight of the supersonic Concorde and Boeing’s 747 ‘Jumbo Jet’ entered service. Plus seminal music moments like Woodstock and The Beatles’ last live performance.

Le Mans 1969

Le Mans 1969

In motor racing, there was the closest finish ever at Le Mans, wings first appeared on F1 cars and the famed Ford Falcon GT-HO arrived. The first national all-day live broadcast of the Bathurst 500 was shown by the Seven Network.

The debut of Allan Moffat’s Trans-Am Boss 302 Mustang was another pivotal development in Australian motor racing, while Bathurst that year gave true rise to the Ford versus Holden and Moffat vs Brock rivalries that popularised the sport for generations to come.

Touring car racing in 1969 – both series production and Improved Touring – is the foundation of Supercars today.

Allan Moffat's Ford Mustang Trans Am arriving in Australia

Allan Moffat’s Ford Mustang Trans Am arriving in Australia

It was also the year that, as an impressionable 12-year-old, I became enamoured with car racing.

Moffat, Norm Beechey, Bob Jane, Ian Geoghegan, Alan Hamilton, Jim McKeown and Peter Manton, plus lesser lights like Bryan Thomson and Terry Allan, inspired my interest.

Mustangs, Camaros, Monaro, Porsche 911, Lotus Cortina and Mini Copper S. Hero cars and hero drivers. It was the Golden Age of tin top racing.

In open-wheelers, which were even more important back then, the stars were Kevin Bartlett, Leo Geoghegan, John Harvey, Max Stewart and, of course, Jack Brabham.

Bathurst ’69 confirmed my obsession, adding Colin Bond and Peter Brock as the Holden heroes against the villainous Ford foreigner Moffat.

But nothing in ’69 – not even the prospect of sexual freedom – inspired me more than man setting foot on the Moon.

It happened on this day, July 21, at 12.56 pm AEST. That year, it was a Monday – a school day – and like hundreds of millions around the world, I watched Neil Armstrong step onto the surface of the Moon and utter those immortal words “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”.

Has there ever been a more moving moment – or better words – in human history? The live TV telecast in grainy black and white was the ultimate expression of hope for the future.

TV pictures from the surface of the Moon, beamed 386,000 km across space!

We watched it on a 21-inch screen set up at the front of the classroom, and as small and as fuzzy as the picture was, it was epic. Next stop, Mars and beyond. It was the beginnings of ‘Star Trek’ coming true. Or so we thought.

In the midst of the Cold War, when nuclear obliteration and/or Communist invasion were very real fears, putting men on the moon was the start of humankind’s expansion in the galaxy. And, hopefully, mutual peace.

Colonisation of the Moon and then missions to Mars and beyond beckoned in the 1970s. Except they didn’t. NASA and the Soviets quickly scaled back manned missions and extra-planetary exploration was limited to unmanned vehicles and far-reaching satellites.

Still, in 1969, nothing seemed beyond man’s reach. Landing on the Moon remains the greatest human achievement ever.

It fulfilled centuries of dreams of reaching the stars. We still fell way short, but getting to the Moon was the first step of going beyond our blue planet.

Until we find a cure for cancer and the common cold – plus the multitude of other basic ailments – nothing will approach the achievement of putting men on the Moon.

The technological advancement it reaped, alone, was worth the many billions the eight-year program cost.

Australia played a small but vital role in the Apollo 11 mission, relaying critical communications – including the world-stopping TV vision – through the Honeysuckle Creek and Parkes tracking stations.

It’s extraordinary to think that the computing power to land on the Moon and get back was way less than that of an early 2000s mobile phone, much less a modern smartphone.

Putting men on the Moon was as much analogue as it was digital. Imagine what today’s technology could achieve.

Motor racing’s progress since 1969 has also been extraordinary. But 50 years of regulated technology has driven it down a cul du sac rather than to heights of heroic competition.

I feel privileged to have watched the Moon landing and to have lived in the era of the Space Race – and the social reforms that accompanied that period.

Will we ever see another year as momentous as 1969? Let’s hope so.

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