And they are on their way!

Last Sunday, my technician invited us out for a race event! It is at Mallala Race Course. If I am not wrong, it is 80km up North of Adelaide. His name is Patrick. He told us to meet him at Mawson Central at 7.15am. That morning, the wind was blowing cold and hard. The jacket was of little help. My hands felt numb. We were wondering, "Why is he so late? Do not tell me he forgot that he must meet us!". While waiting in the cold, Morven and I saw a man wearing a t-shirt and a pair of shorts with shoes and socks, taking his dog for a walk. Alas, he came 55 minutes later. I did not comment on his punctuality because he is the driver. Instead, I commented on the weather. He laughed and said, "This is not cold, this is great weather for racing!".

The journey was long. We passed big fields of crops towards 3/4 of the journey. I saw dwarf horses, sheep, horses and cows. They were eating in the sun. The sheep were very cute. Patrick towed his own built car to the track.

He built his own race car?! My goodness!

The body, rims, electrical wiring, lights and many more were done by him. The engine is from Toyota. He also bought the bucket seat. Wonderful piece of engineering. He did some paper work and wrote our names down as pit crew. He had a small problem starting up his engine but he fixed it up very quickly. He brought down his car to be inspected by the scrutineers. I saw so many cars. There were old Porsches, vintage cars from some generation, home built cars and clubmans.

The cars are lining up in the distance for their practice runs.


These 5 race cars are called clubmens.

Patrick went for 2 laps on the practice run and came back to the pit. He felt something was wrong. When he opened the bonnet, the air in the intake manifold built up so much pressure that it force the pressure gauge tube out. He did a quick fix and as he tried starting up his engine, it did not work. The patient did not wake up. Patrick checked the heart. It seems that the head gasket blew. So what does it mean? It means Patrick will not be racing. He was so disappointed. The patient is dead. We pushed him back into the container and went to watch others race instead.


Having a picnic!

So we just watched cars race against the clock. The best lap time wins. At about 1pm, Patrick brought us to a man and we became flag marshalls!

I do not sweep the track.

What we do is to observe the track and the cars. When accidents happen or if there is an obstruction on the road, we raise the flag. We have seen some spin outs, a small accident took place at a corner and at another corner, someone lost his wheel! It flew out while exiting the corner. Very spectacular! We also realised that Daylight Saving Time ended that Sunday at 2am. The time has returned back 1 hour so Morven and I actually waited at 6.15am and Patrick arrived at 7.10am. What goons we were.

It was a bright and sunny day. I got sun burnt after that. I must get a hat soon. Lastly, I really like this car.

Nice~

Next up, my working colleagues! Thank you for reading folks!