Yep short on officials.
Stewards agreed to allow the meeting to continue on the Druitt circuit after the roll call was settled in this morning with literally, who was left standing after the brutal day in the sun yesterday. We were down to a handful of flagies, the conditions were horrible.
Thankfully, nothing caught fire.
We had a few close ones, a fuel line blank of a DCOE vibrated free and it was pumping fuel straight up in the air, creating a lovely fine vapor in the hot air before settling on the ~60+ degree bitumen in front of the incoming field. The driver noticed something was weird and had the fortune to look over his shoulder to see the fuel vapor, he shut it off and rolled back into the pits (he was just entering the main straight). This was enough for this ol' dude, rightfully deciding "that was pretty close" and retired the car destined for his mechanic no doubt to check everything and wire every fastener together.
And as of 2pm, the air cooled Porches and VW's mostly survived! A couple retired early during their shortened events but it was unclear if the driver, or the car has just had enough. To be fair I suppose our circuit is pretty quick so there is ample opportunity for air to blow over oil coolers.
We were also met with a decent westerly breeze so not even the umbrella could be deployed to keep the sun of the drivers on the dummy grid.
And to the credit of the cat managers and drivers they didn't stink to much about being put on the shorter circuit. Some of the historic Formula Ford guys commented on how great it was as they never get a change to drive the Druitt circuit.
HSRCA had approval from NSW Health to have ~800 on site at the very last minute, they had allowed drivers to now bring 3 x pit crew each. However we ended up with but half of that each day, no doubt in reflection to how crappy it all felt being outside.
And HSRCA deserves to be more popular then they are. It is the only club that we deal with where the organizing committee manage to enter their own cars into their event and get out there on the track, I suppose that may or may not reflect some of the stuff you had to deal with Chris.. Either way, the vehicles that their members look after.. Geee's this really is the basis for an Australian Goodwood if we could get organized and develop something.
I've always wanted to create a series of short courses at our track, Like starting on the dummy grid and racing up to gate A, turning around and heading back to the new round-a-bout, exiting that and heading back into the Amaroo paddock, entering the pit lane and then turning around and finishing at Turn 4. That is near enough a 1.9km sprint, and we could have spectators close close close. It would suck for the big cars but it would be a hoot for us small car owners. Ah well I can dream at least
Exhibit A)
Beer time for me, I snuck home early, err delegated my responsibility.
SALUTE!
