For a one day meeting, the weather was very changeable. Practice cloudy, race one quite hot, and race two monsoon. Surprisingly Renton didn’t load his car on the trailer before the wet race, though I wish I had, more on that later. He was seen ice skating on the skid pan with slippery shoes, then later turning his car into a sauna. It was overheating with steam coming into the cabin. Adrian gave me a specially bent piece of dowel to use as a fuel gauge on the V8. In the past I have been unscrewing the filler pipe to dip a piece of wood in to check fuel levels. Thanks for that Adrian, maybe there is a market for that, or maybe just fix the fuel gauge. With practice over, Renton Murray was on pole, I was second and Rex Bentham in third. Todd Forsyth’s Fanta fourth with Nick Willcox close behind, followed by Terry Collier, Murray Ralls, Adrian Hayman and John Campbell in a tight bunch. Neville Thompson, John Palmer and Darryl Bretherton at the rear. Race one was more or less the predictable, with the exception being Neville Thompson putting in a blinder of a race and jumping quite a few spots. He posted his fastest time ever at this track of 1:27. Rex didn’t race, with electrical problems not letting him start. Race two was a bit different for a number of reasons. The first because it was a reverse grid handicap race, with Renton and I starting from the pits. I think there was only 10 seconds between the field. The second because it was turning into a monsoon. I have never seen so much water lying in the corners, the drainage just couldn’t cope. The third because I caused the abandonment of the rest of the meeting, something I am not proud of. So it was a early day for everyone.
The race got under way with the cars whizzing past Renton and I in the pits. All I could see above the concrete barrier was the top of the cars going past, then I got to the end of the pit exit to see Rex spinning on turn one and still going sideways as I got onto the track beside him. Not sure how many laps we had done, before the bump going up the hill to the Apartments, followed by oil on the track caught me out and finished proceedings for the day. It is a place I am always worried about in the wet. Personally, I think something should be done about it before someone is seriously hurt, or worse. Quite a few cars had already been mud plugging before I was going sideways along the front straight at about 140 kph with the pit entrance wall coming up. Now those who know me, know I don’t swear, but I may have thought a bad word starting with f, and it wasn’t fantastic or fudge. Knowing it was going to hurt, hitting sideways at that speed, made me wish I had bought a Hans Device for neck protection. Something I was thinking of doing, but now defiantly doing. I was wearing a foam neck brace, so I sunk down as low as I could, gripped the steering wheel as hard as I could, and lifted my shoulders to push the neck brace up as far as possible under the helmet. Luckily what had looked like a concrete wall, turned out to be a tyre wall with concrete behind, and plastic sign writing on the front. The car and I ended up buried underneath the tyres. With cars still coming towards me, that was where I left it, turning everything off, then ducking into the pit entrance. Ambulance staff gave me the check over, concerned about neck damage, making me lie down for half an hour. Apart from very sore muscles, there was no real damage. Very lucky. When I got back to my pit area, all the MG drivers had
loaded the Special on the trailer, and all my gear in the back of the 4x4. Thanks a lot
guys. I have to stop breaking MG’s. This was the first meeting I had put a camera on
my car, but I had forgotten to turn it on. Any way we all went to the Muddy Waters Pub in
Mercer for a much needed drink. Click HERE to
see the results for race 1. |
