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work like clockwork today. It is a very
sophisticated operation behind the
scenes. Throughout the day, the brains
trust managed to fit in more than 20
events despite, I’d say, the best efforts
of some of our club members to slow
it down. It was miraculous how it
worked.
Ross, did say to me on Saturday that I
would be surprised by what I saw, and
I was.
Standing in the middle of York Street pointing to the pit entrance is no guarantee that all
the drivers would go in the direction I was pointing. One or two completely ignored me and
drove another lap of the circuit.
There seemed to be a high number of
on-track breakdowns in the morning.
Now when you are a competitor and
you are sitting in your car on the grid
getting bored, you have no realisation
that on-track there are often a couple
of teams of people hooking up cars to
get them off the circuit. It was very
efficient.
I think we could make a funny
Christmas reel on the stupid things drivers do when
their car breaks down. For example, in one case,
park the car, get out of the car, take your helmet off,
stand on the side of the road, have a think about
why it could have stopped, jump in the car, roll it
back onto the track, open the bonnet and take a look
inside — all of this while the event is still underway!
That was just one example.
It made me reflect on it all that we, the drivers, are
the cause of most of the hold-ups.
Of course, hitting the barriers is the worst
indiscretion and we had one of those near us, too. It
is also surprising how much oil and other
fluids make their way onto the track even
though we all, as competitors, do our best to
stop the dreaded oil leaks. It was a dry
Albany Classic but it was easy to see how a
damp track with just a tiny amount of oil
could make it hazardous. Some cars were
squealing when they crossed the concrete
kerbs.
The funniest sight of the day was the driver
who would almost slow down to a stop in
Graeme Robson in his Renault R8 Gordini
Shane Udecz's Cortina Mk 2 ahead of Greg
Marchesi's Prince Skyline GT
Ken Eade's colourful Chrysler
Valiant R Series
Ron Fabry (Midget)
and Howard
Trevenen (240Z)