Well all you lot stuck in the snow and shitty cold weather on the other side of the planet, it's time to go racing with the Oztralian HA/GRs. Tomorrow, Saturday, is the first round of Sydney Championships. So, get ready to be entertained, or bored shitless, by our antics. Not sure who's fronting up but I'm fairly certain it'll be the usual band of retrobates with maybe a newby in the form of the sucker, er, sensible bloke who bought OBFB's HAMBster. It could be a late night finish so I mightn't post anything till Sunday. Be still my beating heart, it will happen. (Can't tell I'm married to a High School English teacher who teaches Shakespeare.)
No problem Spanners. We're looking forward to your reports. (Wasn't Shakespeare English? Don't you guys have a Bard from Oz?)
A couple more for youse. My apologies for no in-car camera video, as in my haste I didn't push the microphone plug in properly so there's vision but garbled sound. I'll try to do a more detailed report later tonight.
Saturday started badly with drizzly rain for most of the 2 hour trip down to Sydney. A massive competitor turnout for the first round, resulting in only 2 qualifying runs before the 3 Chicago shootout runs. A massive turnout for the HAMBsters with 5 fronting for the first run , with the Mangrove Mountain entry having a sleep in and getting there late (and no late note from his wife) giving us 6 HA/GRs. We had a few delays due to rain during the course of the morning but got the 2 qualifying runs done by lunchtime and then had to wait six hours till our scheduled Chicago shootout runs. I was up against Joe with his 13.90 dial and my 14.50. Joe ran a 14.2 with my 14.6 taking the win. Jeff was up against Gerry (in Nigel's old car) . Jeff took the win with Gerry redlighting. Mangrove Steve (13.50) took on Steve Danglmaier (13.85) with Mangrove Steve doing it perfect with a 13.50 with Steve D. 14.05. Next shootout saw Joe against Mangrove Steve with Steve taking the win. Gerry was up against me with Gerry running 14.082 on a 14.00 dial and I ran 14.597 on a 14.50 dial with a .001 reaction time. I was pretty happy about that. Those that don't like bracket racing have got to admit it gives good close racing. Steve D. and Jeff were up next with Steve D. redlighting. Third shootout Jeff ran Joe with Joe redlighting, giving the win again to Jeff. He'd won all three shootouts by the others redlighting. Gerry ran Steve D. with Steve breaking out handing the win to Gerry. I ran Mangrove Steve with Steve breaking out running 13.229 on a 13.50, and I ran 14.520 0n a 14.50. The final was me against Jeff with not much break between runs. Jeff doesn't run a cooling system so his oil temp was climbing alarmingly. We lined up ready to 'rock and roll' with me rolling into a deep stage and not thinking of the consequences. You guessed it, side-stepped off the clutch and brought up a lovely cherry. Game over, the win went to Jeff. All in all, despite the rain delays and the huge wait between runs, a pretty good day's racing I reckon. I was going to drive to Gunnedah the next day and race there, but as we didn't get home till 11.45pm the alarm going off at 4.15am got ignored. Plus it was my birthday so I spoilt myself with a day tooling around the shed. I'll post more fillums tomorrow so you'll have to hang by your short and curlies till then. Peter
Spanners,thanks for the update and vids.Some of us wish it was cold in our neck of the woods....they are talking temps near 100 degrees here in AZ this weekend
Here we have me and Mangrove Steve, two six cylinders having a fang. Steve D. and Gerry. This is probably the most runs Nigel's old car has ever done. Finally, Joe and Junior facing off.
Man, it's so good to see my old girl getting the flogging she deserves. I'm so glad to see Gerry running her so much
It was a truly fantastic day and we are so excited to see you all again on Sunday for Day of the Drags.
The Jalopy Journal
