Hammer n Tongs

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Day 38 - Warwick to Willowbank
All quiet on the night shift front, both of us slept like logs having picked a pitch far away from the highway! Having power in the caravan gave us the opportunity to charge up the batteries for this, that and the other plus gives us the luxury of heating for what was another chilly night!
We were heading off to the race track today to settle into a 4 day meeting starting tomorrow. We headed into Warwick early to get some supplies, usual assortment of kangaroo steak, seafood, pork chops, salad and beer! In Oz the alcohol isn’t sold in the main section of the supermarkets, it’s usually a separate area next to it or you need to seek out a drive through bottle shop. Regardless of which, the beer is kept in huge walk in fridge sections which Darryl spends a lot of time checking out for the bargains! He’s currently taste testing Hammer n Tongs draught lager and has given it the thumbs up plus he’s chuffed with the larger sized bottles!
Back from the shopping spree we pack everything away and start the journey out to Willowbank Raceway near Ipswich, Brisbane. This was the main reason for the relatively quick trawl through New South Wales as it’s the biggest meeting we’re likely to see whilst we’re doing our tour.
It’s only a short drive this morning, just under an hour and a half but includes a very steep descent which sees trucks pulling into rest areas to cool their brakes off! The scenery is mountainous and we really look forward to getting the chance over the coming weeks for a lot more walking and exploring.
On arrival at the Willowbank we’re met by the fabulous Jeff Rice who is the facilities manager here. He’s rushed off his feet and everyone is working really hard getting the place ready for the meeting and plenty of racers are already here. We really appreciate Jeff’s time as we know it’s precious. We’re lucky enough to be able to camp on site, alongside the cleaning and catering teams, and we even manage to sort ourselves a power and water source so we’re more than chuffed.
The weather forecast for the coming days is pretty steady, although it does include a ‘shower’ but hey, we’ve been here before when they’ve had a thunderstorm at 11pm and they’ve still got the track dried to continue well past midnight so we’re pretty sure we’re going to see some great racing with blue skies and the sun beaming down plus some phenomenal night racing!
We had a walk around the pits and happened upon the only front-engine slingshot on the premises! We didn’t ask too many questions but found out that the car runs 7,2’s and is for sale!! We’ll have to go back to chat some more over the weekend.
The night draws in and Jeff finds time to visit us before he leaves to go home after a very long day. We wish him a safe journey and promise to be up early to lend a hand with the anything he can think of that still needs doing.
We had a good catch up with Mum and Dad K tonight over Skype, the connection was a bit iffy but the call lasted quite a while and only costs $1 using the Telstra internet dongle, result! Skype is great when you’re travelling for keeping in touch.
Here’s to a great race weekend, if it’s anything like the UK’s recent Main Event it’s going to be fantastic!
Dar & Sar

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