Phillip Island Cruise / HQ Racing

Part 1

Firstly, I would like to apologise for the indecent hour of departure from Club Kilsyth, but in order to make it to the track in time to see our own club member on the track more than once it was unavoidable. But that would go a long way towards explaining why we had 3 cars ready for the 8am departure time. Dean was the first to arrive in his VL Commodore followed by Bec & co in her Torana, just as things were looking sad we were saved by our president Simon in LOLION with Kath, Tam and Kat, doubling the bodies on the cruise.

Mel went to a great deal of trouble to condense the directions to under 10 changes of direction. This really helped in keeping the cruise line together all the way to the track. With the run list, I also handed out a word search of classic & vintage cars to all the passengers to complete at their convenience, with the promise of token prizes depending on their result.

Dean was kind enough to drive me to the Island, it was great to have someone to chat to for the drive, and allowed me to leave my car in full view with instructions on the windscreen for anyone who missed the early departure time. We all headed out to the freeway along Stud Rd and followed that all the way to the Island. When we made it to the track we all pulled over to enter together and park in line. No sooner had Dean stopped his car than Tam came skipping up to my door to tell me she had finished her word search, that won her a prize for being super keen. In contrast neither of the fella’s in Bec’s car had started the word search, winning her the other stuffed toy penguin.

We walked into the pits while the Formula Fords were on track for their qualifying session; that meant we made it in time to watch Adam in the HQ’s next up. We had just enough time to have a quick chat while the cars were staged for their session, then we went to the roof of the pit building to watch. When Adam found some relatively clear track, he managed to qualify 18th in a big field of cars. Next up were the Improved Production cars, for their session I wandered down to turn 1 to watch them come through the high speed sweeper and set up for the double apex turn 2. With all the different types of cars in that field it made it great viewing when they were on a flying lap. But it’s really hard to go past the raw power of the Sports Sedans, taking a car that you like the look of, or just happen to have parked in the workshop, cut it up to fit the most powerful V8 you have into it, then make it stop & turn. Just AWSOME!!!

Walking back to the pits to catch up with the crew, I noticed OPLESE (Mackie’s car) and John’s HZ parked in front of the cars. When I got to Adam’s Transporter, there was a relaxed and organised feeling, with the girls sitting in the sun and the support crew all doing stuff that looked important, and that brought us to lunch-time.

Some members took the opportunity to head off to Cowes and enjoy the sites & sounds of PI. After lunch I didn’t leave the pit rooftop, it was great to just kick back and watch the racing, talking to the club members & enjoying the racing. Then it was time for the HQs to hit the track, all the members and support crew joined us on the rooftop. It was great to watch racing and know that’s your mate’s car moving up through the field, to see how these drivers push what seems like a barge around the track at speeds that put almost all our road cars to shame. It had been far too long since I have been to any live wheel to wheel racing. When all the dust had settled and the results were in Adam had moved up the order to 13th place - quite a respectable effort in such a controlled category.

I had a great time. Thanks to all that made it along to Mel & my cruise. See you on the road next time.

- Lee

Part 2

Kath and I fronted up at Club Kilsyth to a coldish and overcast Saturday morning all rugged up knowing that we were going to Phillip Island, I had extra layers on to ward off the icy wind that often prevails down that way. It was a very small crowd that greeted us when we got there, 4 cars in total. We waited a bit in case anyone was coming late and then headed off in a three car convoy, Dean’s VL, Bec’s Torana and Kath’s VS.

The drive down itself was fairly uneventful, which is the way we like it on these types of runs. Dean led most of the way with the lead changing a few times on the freeway. Bec got a bit of a heart starter when the local law enforcement pulled out behind her as we crossed the bridge onto the island. She breathed a big sigh of relief as they then pulled into Newhaven, no harm done.

We regrouped at the gates and headed into the car park. With the cars all locked up we all wandered over the crossover and into the pits to see how Adam’s preparations were going and to have a general sticky beak at some cool stuff! We had not long to wait and Adam was heading out for qualifying, the car with its fresh paintwork looking absolutely awesome and should have been a shoe-in for best presented in my book!

As the HQ series nears the pointy end, the competition amongst the front runners was fierce and all the drivers were pushing hard. Adam qualified 18th amongst a field of 35 cars, without incident. The first race of three for the weekend went well. Adam managed to fight his way up to 13th at the end of what would have passed at other tracks as a demolition derby! One of the cars had blown a hole in both sides of his engine and spread oil all over the track at the end of the main straight. With cars sliding off the track and into each other Adam did well to keep the car unmarked. There was plenty of HQ’s looking very sad after a hard fought 6 laps.

With every thing running smoothly and the car driving well it was quickly checked and left for the night while other teams did head gaskets, make-shift panel beating and one crew towed back to Melbourne to put a whole new front end on their car!

On Sunday morning disaster struck! The trusty HQ was discovered to have a blown head gasket that wasn’t noticeable on a warm motor. With 1 hour till the first race of the day the car was pushed through scrutineering and quickly back to the pits so the boys could rip the head off. A mystery miss fire still prevailed once the gasket had been replaced and with much messing around the car was sent out, 1 lap down in the second 6 lap race to at least complete the round for some points.

Coming in ahead of one other car on the track and those who didn’t complete, put the car in 31st position for the final 10 lap round of the weekend. The boys got busy again, finding the mystery problem and getting it sorted and running properly. The car was running right, cleaned to within an inch of its life, fueled and then Adam was all fired up for the charge from the back of the pack.

From the start in the 3rd race Adam managed to squeeze the car through the pack, again unscathed, into the middle of the field before reaching Honda corner on the first lap. With some tight racing amongst a small group of cars Adam managed to finish 18th overall for the weekend. With one of the highest carnage rates of any HQ race I have watched so far, he did well to walk away with only one small dint in the front left corner from a get together with David Amor for whom he used to race.

All in all I had a fantastic weekend. The weather was good, the racing was tight and action packed. We managed to catch a few bits and pieces of some of the other classes that were racing that weekend which was great too. Well done to Adam who placed well overall for the weekend considering the setback of Sunday morning. Thanks to Lee and Mel for organising the run and activities for the trip.

- Simon