ARDC - State Championships

Eastern Creek - August 29 1999

by Little Al Mullet

Out of bed at some ungodly hour on a Sunday morning, its still dark when I get into the car, hiding the weather prospects for the day. As the sun comes up, dark clouds and wet patches everywhere. Oh well at least I shouldn't get sun burnt.

On arrival we sign on, drink coffee and have a quick chat with other officials before heading into pit lane and our duties for the day. Having been assigned a radio, I can here race that control are concerned about the weather and track conditions, with light rain falling during practice there were some minor problems for drivers.

However the heavens opened during race 1, the under 2 litre club car preliminary, creating chaos at turn 1 after the chequered flag. One car aquaplaned to the outside of the track, making minor contact with the wall. While he was sitting there waiting to resume the cooldown lap, another car aquaplaned, colliding with a third, sending it in to the stationary first car, causing major damage. While all this was happening several others were attempting take evasive action with several minor collisions resulting. When the dust? had settled we had 5 cars in the corner with varying amounts of damage, from minor to extreme, and 2 or 3 others way off in the distance across the grass. There were bits of cars scattered through about a 100mtr of turn 1.

The clean up took quite a while in very wet conditions, and with no time to don the wet weather gear, I got very, very wet. After all this action we wondered what more could happen, but as the day wore on the weather dried up, and the day was uneventful, if not boring for us in pit lane. So my next adventure in the wide world of motor sport will be the Sunny Corner Control at the Peter Rogers Real Estate Rally. By the time you see this the rally report should be on the site somewhere. My next report will be for the Bob Jane T Mart Bathurst weekend.

See you later LITTLE AL.