Vale - Alf Pearce
The Melbourne University Car Club, is saddened to announce the passing of long time member Alf Pearce. Alf began rallying while still a student - using the mighty Wolesley he had purchased from an elderly neighbour in 1966 . It was a very comfortable car on a rough road.
Alf was a stalwart of MUCC and one of the first people I met when I attended my first club-night in early 1983, shortly after starting at Melbourne Uni and joining the club.
At the time I was dead keen on getting a Datsun 1600 to go rallying (it was either that or an Escort – neither of which I have ever owned then or since) and Alf, having competed in his own 1600, was generous with his time and advice on what to look for and what to avoid.
As it happened, my first rally car (also my daily drive at the time) was a 1969 Toyota Corolla which, a mere two years later I destroyed by hitting a tree stump and rolling it on the Maldon Muddle rally in late 1985.
It was Alf who manged to quickly find a car trailer locally – an old nail of a thing, but better for being readily available – and then helped retrieve the remains of my former pride and joy from the forest back to his parents’ property at Welshman’s Reef. He then located a better trailer for hire, helped unload the wreck, take the original trailer back, pick up the new trailer from Castlemaine (a 40-ish km round trip), reload my bent car and drag it (and me) back to Melbourne; all on a Sunday afternoon when he probably had plenty of other things he’d rather have been doing.
And that was Alf; always on hand when help was needed, generous with his knowledge and time, a calm head when things went awry and always ready with a quiet word of approval or caution when called for.
Michael Seidler