If this isn’t unique, I’ll eat my hat! Three Aussie guys take it in turns to set records and win championships in a Mini Moke that spent much of its early life as a rusting hulk in a back yard, playing the role of trellis to an enthusiastic gardener’s exotic plants. I’m getting the story direct from Scott, Andy and Jye, but the setting isn’t any of the tracks or hillclimbs that the three of them frequently tackle with the Moke. No, it’s the Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron and we are surrounded by the spoils of victory in another highly competitive sport (this one on water).
We’re not complaining, though. The sun is shining, the location is great, and these three guys have a real tale to tell. Scott reveals that while his family were big supporters of his racing antics in the early days, travelling to every event with him, they tend to stay away more now: “It’s too nerve-racking for them seeing me in the middle of a pack, invariably the last to go for the brakes when the first corner comes up,” he laughs.
It is this sort of approach that encouraged Scott Markby into motorsport. He admits to frequently seeing blue lights in his rear-view mirrorThen Uncle Ivor and Auntie Margaret said they had a little Mini Deluxe they wanted to sell.” Scott still craved the muscle of the V8, right up until Ivor took him for a run in the Mini: “He scared the pants off me… I couldn’t believe how it handled and sped around corners like a mad mouse at the funfair.” Needless to say, Scott immediately bought the car.
