In a fitting farewell, Canberra super-promoter Chic Henry, the father of the Summernats street machine festival, was sent off in style on Friday with a lewd joke, laughter, tears . . . and plume of a burn-out smoke.
Mr Henry's memorial service inside the judging pavilion at Exhibition Park drew a crowd of around 400 people, with many hundreds more watching it streamed live online via social media.
Robert Anthony "Chic" Henry died in Canberra on April 14 at the age of 75, after a prolonged battle with cancer. While he had managed to fight it off in a previous round, the cancer returned last year to eventually claim his life.
Appropriately, the Chic Henry memorial attendees were people from all walks of life including the territory's Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury, Police Minister and car enthusiast Mick Gentleman, ACT Liberals leader Elizabeth Lee, many winners of the Summernats grand champion sword, old friends from the ACT and interstate, and his much-loved family.
With the carpark outside crammed with spectacular street machines, the Summernats judging team formed a guard of honour as the casket was wheeled in front of the stage, vinyl-wrapped in Chic Henry's favourite colours and topped by a golden race helmet which was awarded to him 12 years ago when officially bestowed with 'legend" status.
The eulogy, delivered by one of his oldest friends and business supporters, Rare Spares boss David Rayner, reminded the crowd that Chic had planned his own memorial - his "final show" - quite carefully, complete with a podcast in which detailed his favourite music, and cajoling the crowd with "let's not be sad, let's celebrate!"
Chic Henry was a member of the Rolling Stones fan club and his musical taste ran heavily into 1960s rock and roll, including the Beach Boys, Iron Maiden, Billy Thorpe - because he believed the verse "most people I know think that I'm crazy" summed him up quite well - and even Dusty Springfield.
A friend for 45 years, Mr Rayner spoke of Chic Henry's generosity, his resilience, and of how Summernats was launched in Canberra in 1988 but racked up so much debt that it nearly failed financially in its first year, only to return bigger and better the following year.
During the 25 years in which it grew to become the territory's biggest and most enduring event, Summernats collected three regional tourism awards, Chic Henry also won an individual ACT tourism prize and was awarded the title of ACT honorary ambassador by former Chief Minister Kate Carnell.
Held every summer, the event has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the ACT economy.
People were reminded, too, of how the consummate showman loved putting on a Summernats Saturday night spectacle, topped by fireworks. Down through the years the drawcards included a jet truck blowing apart a Volvo, a Roman chariot race, a cyclist with a rocket strapped to his back, a Rolls Royce car jump, and so-called "adult entertainment" involving wet T-shirts and wet jockey shorts.
His death, Mr Rayner said, had "left a huge dent that will need some panel-beating".
Another old friend, Summernats chief judge Owen Webb recalled how Chic Henry proposed the holding the Canberra festival because he was fed up with the factional in-fighting within the car club ranks during the mid to late 1980s.
"He wanted to put on his own show in which everyone was welcome, no matter what car they drove," Mr Webb said.
Chic Henry's final journey around the Summernats cruise strip, with his own Chevrolet Impala Super Sport bringing up the rear of the funeral procession, ended up at the burnout pad where Australia's burn-out "king" Garry Myers gave a tyre-smoking sign-off.
