Saturday's qualifying was cancelled and replaced with a ten minute warm up because of the rain.
Their argument being that nobody would improve their times from the previous day.
The decision didn't help me much, I didn't post a qualifying time!
My stand in passenger finely turned up half an hour before warm up.
Things could only improve from here right?
Sorry Sam didn't mean to go missing.
Started this post Saturday night but got a phone call and had to do a runner.
One of the other blokes rang looking for a gear set.
We had one in our parts kit but we where staying at a mates place at Warragul and he was camping an hour away at the Island.
So we jumped in the car and drove back with the gear set.
By the time we got there they already had the motor pulled so we helped them install the gearbox and refit the motor.
Anyway, back to the race report.
Our stand in passenger "Up side down" Bob McKinnon is about a foot and half taller than Pat and was having real trouble moving around the platform.
He just couldn't do the transition from right to left quick enough during the warm up.
Oh, and when I said it was raining, it was raining.
Some parts of Victoria copped six inches in 24hrs.
"Terry in Australia" was going to come down for a look and piked it, the sook.
So.
We lined up at the rear of the grid, peering at the arse end of around thirty sidecars through the rain for the first race.
We managed to pick off 5 or 6 of the slower blokes before the Kink.
By the time we hit the braking area at Southern Loop there was just a wall of spray, couldn't see a thing but I knew there where twenty odd sidecars in there somewhere.
We rolled into Southern Loop in a gear higher than usual and took a much wider line. Everybody else where railing around nose to tail on pole so we managed pick off a couple more.
By the time we hit the breaking area for Honda Corner three bikes had gone off in front of us.
Swapped a bit of paint with Dougy Flack getting round Honda but got myself all crossed up at Siberia and Dougy got under me.
Rounded Doug back up as we headed up through Hay Shed.
We went over Lukey Heights on full right hand lock, then down into MG full left hand lock, never done it before and never want to do it again.
I had my visor clipped up about half an inch but halfway down Gardner Straight the wind pressure slambed it shut.
By the time we hit the Kink my visor had fogged up and I couldn't see Southern Loop, let alone spot my break marker.
At this stag I think I had wet myself but it didn't matter because I was already soaked through with the rain, nobody would notice.
End of lap One.
The next couple of laps followed in much the same fashion so I'll spare you the gory details.
After the "last lap" board came out we managed to pass Max Hopper the current Australian Champion as we went up through Hay Shed.
Never done that this year.
So when the Chequered flag finally dropped I thought we may have finished some where in the top five.
As we rolled into our pit Pat was waiting for us with the silliest gin on his face.
We had won the first race.
I just couldn't believe it!
We where leading the Ozz Champs with two races to go Sunday.
Now Sam I'm not being mellow dramatic here but it's 4am Tuesday morning and I need to get to bed will post the rest of my report ASAP
Cheers,
Brian
