Well Easternats has come and gone for another year. This year saw a slightly different setup to previous years, with the Friday set aside purely for scrutineering. The event was extended to include the Monday, which allowed for three full days of non-stop action. And let me tell you, it was a big weekend!
We had three club cars entered this year – Jason’s VH Commodore, Paul’s JT Gemini, and my Torana. After getting through scrutineering without any drama’s on the Friday, it was an early start on Saturday morning to get stuck into the driving activities. First up was the traditional cruising around the circuit. The numbers definitely seemed a lot lower this year, with heaps of cruising time and space on the track, not to mention smallish lines. We never seemed to be in line for more than 20 minutes before we got out on the track which was excellent. We must have done the better part of 30 laps that morning! The front straight was divided into two lanes – the left lane for cruising, and the right line for burnouts. It was great to see an incident-free weekend this year too – with everyone driving around just having a blast out there!
Around lunchtime it was time for the Go-to-whoa on the front straight. Cruising was allowed to continue around this since it was a single lane. Traction wasn’t the best, but did improve some-what with lowered tyre pressures. I also learnt that cars don’t pull up too well when the idiot behind the wheel forgets to turn the line locker off!!! Luckily for me I got a second attempt! The results for our cars were:
| Go – To – Whoa | ||
|---|---|---|
| Brett (Torana) | 9.28 seconds | 9th overall |
| Jason (Commo) | 11.37 seconds | equal 50th overall |
| Paul (Gemini) | 11.37 seconds | equal 50th overall |
Then of course it was onto the first burnout elimination session for the weekend. I decided it was about time I entered this event, since I’d never done it before. I wanted to see how the beast would go! I was amazed how nerve-racking the experience was, mainly just the long wait and build-up while I was waiting for my turn. Deb strapped herself into the passenger seat, armed with the video camera for some in-car footage! With some tiny little 195’s replacing my usual 265’s on the rear, the car felt grouse!!! Grabbed top gear no worries and proceeded to pop both tyres in 35 seconds. I never intended to pop them but in the heat of the moment you don’t actually think a great deal out there! Then I realised I had managed to rip the rear flare clean off the car. Ouchy. Just to ad further to my woes, while we were limping the car back to the pit area it suddenly stopped and refused to start up again. Turned out I had broken the pins that hold the weights inside the dizzy – maybe standard dizzy’s don’t take too kindly to 7500 rpm!!! Funny that! But it was well worth it when I found out I made the Top 60 for the finals, qualifying 12th.
With my car left at home on the Sunday, I had a nice relaxing day. While Jason & Paul continued with lots of cruising, I got to watch all the action and shoot some more footage with the camera. It sounded like a much more congested day out on the track when I spoke to the guys. After the cruising, it was then onto the drifting – a new event this year. They used the last couple of turns as you come onto the main straight for this. It was a great event for the spectators, especially when the participants actually gave drifting a good attempt – it made for some great action, with plenty spinning out, while others managed sensational drifts, really getting the crowd going. There were also a whole lot of entrants though who decided to turn it into a burnout comp – many actually getting boo’d by the crowd and red-flagged by the officials. It was a drifting competition after all, so better to save that for the burnout comp. Sunday afternoon then saw more burnout eliminations before the day came to an end.
I have to admit I was rather pumped up again and keen to get the car fixed, so a rather late night with some handy welding from my Dad saw the car ready to rumble again.
We got out there nice and early again on Monday for the final day. The morning was super-quiet so lots more cruising time. With stockies bolted on for the cruising this time, I managed a couple of “hot” laps, where we didn’t really have much traction at all. A nice big smoky burnout down the front straight, and I was convinced the car was running like a dream! The day then got very busy very quickly as everyone prepared for the street drags. It was great to see quite a few Cruisers out spectating too.
With all three club cars getting eliminated in the early rounds, we then parked the cars and watched the rest of the racing. The eventual winner was the same drag Torana that got it last year.
Finally it was onto the burnout finals. Suddenly I realised I had no tyres left to compete with – but a good mate sorted that problem out for me, donating his good mags and tyres off his own car (not his burnout tyres). Thanks Brendan!! I had officially being talked into giving it another crack! So out we went again. Managed to make lots of smoke, but like a lot of other cars out there, I just got lost in my own smoke due to the non-existent wind on the day. Got ever so close to popping the tyres, but I was already over my time limit so that was it for me. Next time – MORE REVS!!!
Anyway, it was a great weekend. Everyone seemed to have a blast, and I know some of us are still grinning from it, despite the minor carnage! But hey – a bit of carnage is always good!!
Make sure you jump onto the Easternats Photos website too – there are 3500 pics from this year! Check them out at www.easternatsphotos.com
- Brett (Shubes)