Well seeing as Jackson managed to skip 3 days of school I thought it would have been in his best interest to write the trip report to keep his young mind sharp! Apparently he doesn't think so!! So your stuck with my report instead!
Well for me the trip started on Friday morning, A very important appointment with some colleagues of Hon Peter Dutton. Turns out they don't like you turning up 1 1/2 hrs early!! Anyway the appointment was scheduled for 45mins but I was on a mission to be somewhere else as early as possible so 6 1/2 mins later I was on my way to pick up Declan & hit Great Eastern Highway for the short trip down the road to Kalgoorlie! A fairly pleasant drive only encountering a couple of muppets slowing me down but the mighty power of the 4.2 made light work of these!
So after arriving in Kal I met up with Ropes & Jackson in the middle of Kal for scrutineering & the show & shine, signed off on the necessary paperwork grabbed a kebab as we coudlnt be assed cooking & headed for our campsite ( Kalgoorlie International speedway). Ropes & Jackson were already set up as they arrived the day before, so we quickly threw up the gazebbo & I set up my stretcher & swag. Only to discover I hadnt dried it out after Rocks & Ruts - Rumble in the Valley so therefore was covered in mould
Rooky error!! After discovering this I wasnt too eager to spend much time in it!! As I arrived late on Friday I then had my VHF radio installed, had a few beers & temporarily forgot about the mould.
Saturday morning was an early one for Ropes & Jackson as CP1 was part of the prologue course they had to be in position at 06:00. I was placed at CP3 & didnt have to be in position until 10:30, however with nothing to do & not sure on where to go I joined the boys at CP1 to watch the racing, then dissapeared up the road to CP3 at just after 09:30 to give to time to find my CP with just a rough map to follow! Turns out it was reasonably well sign posted & not too difficult to find, just alot further down the road than i thought! So the race begins & it turns out CP 1 & CP3 are both live CP so a constant hand on the radio mic was a must! (To those who were at the Gas Dash will find this funnier than most!!) Yes yet again some people (Race Command) struggled a little with the accent! But between recording the cars/ bikes keeping an eye on spectators driving across the track & the odd local who has been roaming the bush for 20 + years & will do what he wants it was a fairly hectic couple of hours! But the bonus was ...... as both Ropes & I were close to the start of the race as soon as all cars/ bikes & sweep passed we were free for the rest of the afternoon time is now 14:30 mint! Back to camp a few beers & helping to put a certain Toyoto front end back together, after noticing a few camp fires on the Friday night I went about creating our own only difference was Saturday night was a good bit windier than Friday, although not even that stopped me! So Sunday morning was even earlier for us! We were to be in position at 05:00.
So Sunday comes sooner than we wanted but we are all in position by the required time! Some of us made brekky & teased the other as some places of the track it was blowing a gale & had no chance to set up a stove!! Although Ropes & I were out of UHF range we were still able to communicate via phone & FB!! This proved pretty useful as we were soon to learn our thoughts of just 1 race on Sunday were incorrect & there was in fact 2 races!! This also proved a little hectic as after race 1 i had 2 broken down cars 300m from my check point & the bikes were on there way! So next come there pit crews with the much needed tools & a little later through the bush comes 1 of the cars gets loaded onto their trailer & back to the pits to get ready for race 2!
Race 2 comes & goes Ropes & I are relieved of our duties at our CP so decide to check out another CP just a couple of kms down the fire break from CP1. This would be CP12 also a Patrol with a married couple Greg & Pauline his wife! After this CP is relieved Ropes & I decide to head out to Lake Perkoilli which the race went around the outside of! Some people say the quick guys were close to 200 - 220km/hr on the straights!
So after some exploring we headed back to camp only to notice the "Toyota" we had helped fix the night before was alot worse off!! The driver was ok whilst the navi turns out was being flown to Perth for a CT scan! needless to say i don't think we will see that car racing again!! So Sunday night again proved to be a relaxing night with another camp fire, some beers & an early night as it had been a long day!
Monday & back to Perth we headed! Via the super pit of course! Wow that hole is damn impressive!! Chatter on the radios was light with only the odd caparison of figures! But both journeys were interesting with my fuel economy!! On the way there I used 76ltrs with a tyre pressure of 50psi & on the way back 88ltrs with a tyre pressures about 40psi having said that there were moments on the drive back both Ropes & I had to flex the power of our mighty rigs so that probably didn't help too much!
So as a trip it was great & I will hopefully definitely do it again! Although this was the first event organised with all of the people involved information to us was scarce, which was frustrating! However I do think the organisers have learnt from this & hopefully the event will run alot smoother next year! From my perspective I think the organisers were pretty lucky they had experienced people on board that helped to make the event the success it was!
Feel free to add photos/ videos Ropes! I know you have some!!
