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Although Easternats wasn't an official club run, there were still a few members who attended this year. Myself and Brett took out LXCHEV for a burl, along with John in his Ford Ute, Bryan and Sam in his VN Commodore, Daniel with his very tidy VH Commo, Brad in his Commodore and Adam from Wonthaggi even made the journey down & Mackie, Adam, Cam, Stormy, and Mish all came along to support the boys out there. This years event had been cut down to two days, some complained it wasn't enough time, but me and Brett were kinda relieved it was a two day event as two days alone equalled around $240 of fuel. Saturday we arrived nice and early, joining the queue to head out cruzin' the track. There weren't as many entrants this year, nothing like the 800 entrants in previous years, more around 400 - 500. After removing Brett's tailpipes we headed out for a spin of the track, heading out from the pits is always a fun adventure, I tend to see nothing but guard rail and crowd versus track, as Brett always crabs the car sideways on entry to the track. After around 30 mins of cruising we were pulled off the track to let the next group on. The next bit of cruzin I jumped in and cruised around. Getting a bit familiar with the track each lap, I remember in the back of my head the famous XR8 corner, a few years ago Brett was teaching me how to kick his car out sideways, so I thought go for it, except I kinda stuffed my entry into it and ended up facing guard rail doing a 180. WHOOPSY!! So after getting back on course we continued to cruise around some more. There were your usual cars entered, 70% Commodores, a few Hot Rods, Muscle Cars and Rice. After cruising around with them all weekend you begin to take in all the different sounds that come along with them. Your sneezing Turbo's, your whizzing superchargers, the rumbling grunt of a nasty V8, but this year I added a new sound to my list, I couldn't quite work out what it reminded me of at first but in the end I worked out that some of the Commodores out there sounded like the kettle boiling. Didn't matter if they had smoke billowing out from behind, I just couldn't get past the sound, or lack of grunty sound. I felt like offering them a tea bag for their cuppa. Next up was Go-To-Whoa, so out in the pits again, it was time to change over yet another set of tyres and head out to compete seriously. So Brett was up first, and usually he does alright, except this year getting traction was hard and then stopping on the what seemed to be invisible line was even harder. The debris from all the burnouts was everywhere on the track. There were two Go-To-Whoa's, both different lengths, one just before the main straight and then the other being on the main straight. We swapped over so I could have a go. First Go-To-Whoa, the marshals were giving me heaps cos I kept stalling it on the line, but also loved I had stolen the keys off my hubby. Hehe. Then I continued to go around lap after lap, to our amazement we had the whole track to ourselves. Either all the tuff cars had their one go and that was enough, or no one liked the course, cos I managed to do several back to back Go-To-Whoa's without even stopping or cooling the car down, there was no one in sight. So if anything we gave the marshals and the crowd something to watch. As we weren't really interested in watching the burnouts on the Saturday we got the car all ready and headed home before closing which was a first. Back Easter Sunday, after spoiling ourselves with loads of Easter eggs, we headed out to our beloved Sandown. Lots of cars that didn't attend Saturday were there, some very serious tuff cars most likely coming along just to go in the street drags. We headed out for yet a few more cruising sessions, Brett bolted on the stockies this time for a bit of fun. We were cruising the track and got to that famous XR8 corner where the day before I had spun it around, and well what did Brett go and do, whamp whamp, and yep I was facing guard rail, except the difference was, Brett kept it going and smoking it up, we did a 360 and were on our way!! We decided not to enter the full on Burnout comp due to a minor oil leak Brett had gained over the weekend, so instead we went in the burnout side lane on the main straight. He said he didn't want to pop tyres as last time we did that at Easternats we damaged the car pretty bad, so we were going in it to do a mild burnout, but yep it ended up being a pretty awesome skid, and by the end of his powerslide up the main straight we heard the sound of belts, so luckily we didn't pop them but we came pretty close. So we limped it back to the pits again, and slapped on yet another set of tyres (ET Street Radials), this time for the drags. Out came all the serious contenders, with a line around half the track we were sorting through which lane we wanted to be in, trying to pick what cars were fast, but as it proved you just couldn't tell. There were way too many cars that were stock appearance yet doing 11's or quicker. So we lined up, did a small skid, and the lights went green and we were off, half track we began to look around to see where the other car was, and noticed it was still back at the start line smoking them up. So one win down, we were stoked. 2nd round we again thought well we've made it this far, who will we come up against next. So once again staged up, lights went green and the car next to us was with us and then seeya we killed them, so we were pumped. 3rd round was a closer race - we get beaten off the line but then sailed on past for another win. The 4th round saw lots of tuff cars left behind, as we pushed the car around the track we spoke to some other entrants, "what's your time?", 11's, oh ok don't want to race you then. Hehe. Then we made it to our final race, we went up against our new mates in FSTGMH, an 11.2 second car. And yep he cained us, at least we got beaten by a faster car and we were only sitting a few car lengths behind. So for us Easternats was nearly over, well as far as driving events went. So off we went to get a good spot in the grandstand to watch some of the boys in the burnout comp. My highlight of the whole weekend was Brett's effort at drifting his car, don't think he was aiming to drift it, but he just had it powersliding all over the place hammering down the front straight. And that was Easternats over for another year!!! There are over 13,000 official pics online at www.easternatsphotos.com as well as some great pics & video's at www.fullboost.com.au - Mrs. LXCHEV (Deb) |