The write up complete with photos can be downloaded from here:
BallaratGTNationalsBySundeep.pdf - 11.4mb PDF
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Wednesday 23 th March – One Sleep to go…
I had been counting down the sleeps to go till the 11 th Falcon GT Nationals for a long long time, day by day the anticipation just kept on becoming more and more unbearable. It was Wednesday evening and as the sun went down the excitement began to rise as there was only one sleep to go! It all sounds easy enough – jump in bed and get some good shut eye, but nope it wasn't going to work like that. I couldn't sleep at all. I found myself in the garage polishing up the chrome on Candy in the early hours of the morning, back and forth I went between the garage and my room, flicking through my Falcon GT photo gallery on the computer to mentally prepare myself for the massive dose of GT's that lay ahead. The lack of sleep and all that polishing was finally starting to catch up with me and I finally went to sleep at 4am .
Thursday 24 th March – The Trip Down…
Forty five minutes later I was up and getting ready for the trip down Mexico way! We fired up the GT and we were off to the Sutton's Forest meeting point. Upon arrival we were greeted by a healthy number of GT's all glistening in the early morning sunlight. Armed with a full tank of go juice and a new sweet lill Windsor that had been built only a week before by Sash from AN Racing, we were on our way.
The convoy had already spilt up into a number of groups not long after the meeting point and we found ourselves cruising with Karl's awesome XA GT and Frank's BA GT. Cruising along we saw Frank's wife Janine leaning out the window with her video camera – perfect time to capture some of that sweet Windsor noise on tape so after prompting the ol' man to throw it back into third and give it a bootful - there was a flash of red and we were gooooonnne!
The convoy pulled into Gundagai around 10AM and as I was walking around stretching the legs I bumped into Rex who pointed at his BA GT and said he had parked next to a Holden – yet from where I stood it seemed he had parked next to Karl's XA GT. After taking a few steps closer and I looked down near his passenger door there was a large pile of horse manure!! Good call Rex.
At around 12PM the convoy rolled into Albury and topped up the tanks at BP, where there was two massive yank tank Pontiacs fueling up as well. These beasts made our GT's look like matchbox cars! After leaving Albury I was starting to feel very second hand due to the lack of sleep and then conked out, falling in and out of sleep for the rest of the trip. Once in Victoria the pace of the convoy backed off and everyone was on their best behavior for the rest of the trip, with one exception of a certain Apollo Blue XB GT Coupe with its curry contents - Bob, Rob and Jeff. The boys, despite being late to the meeting point and stopping by at Goulburn for one and a half hours to visit the original owner of the Coupe, were making fast tracks and gaining on the convoy big-time! As we were going past Wangaratta we spotted a copper on the lookout for his next speeding victim, a phone call was made to the boys in the Coupe who had just left the BP at Albury to give them some heads up. The curries decided not to hurry as they past Wangaratta but after that they were into it again.
Nearing the outskirts of Melbourne we drove past Ford HQ and what a site it was for tired eyes, the sight of the building got the blood pumping again and I was recharged for the rest of the trip to Ballarat. At around 6PM we reached the Ambassador Motor Inn. After a bit of a “powernap” I got up and had a stroll around the motel to check out the cars and meet the mates. The ever alert Garrett ears had picked up on the sweet noise of the AN Racing built lill Windsor as we came in and after our “powernap” Candy was fired up again and Dad took Garrett for a quick burn up Sturt St. Sitting at the motel we heard the foot go down and the note was awesome of the lill Windsor which sounded like it was turning up near the Candy Apple Red line in first and second gears!
As I was pretty much running on empty I had a quick feed then Rhys, Glen, Andrew and I hit the town and ended up at some Irish pub where Rhys has his eyes on some HO's (not the Ford variety though! ). After a while I called it quits and went back to the motel to get some well needed shut eye as I knew id need every once of energy for the neXT few days!
Friday 25 th March – Scrutineering…
We awoke to the unmistakable sounds of Clevos and Windsors struggling to idle, warming up in the cold Ballarat morning air – you couldn't ask for a better wake up call. After getting ready and all that Dad went to fire the GT up but she refused to start, a few more attempts and still no luck. After a quick wander around the hotel to get some help, Oliver, Con, Rob & Tim came to offer a hand as well as the XR bumchums Steve and Charlie . Tim had bought a jump starter pack along but all to no avail, we needed something with more kick - we needed heavier artillery. I went and asked Brett C if he had a jumper kit because I knew out of anyone he would be the man that would carry such an armory because of his serious sound system which is well known to shake the cabins at Valla. Even Bretts powerpack wasn't enough to crank over the lill Windsor . Rob offered his services to act as a human spark conductor to check if the coil was sparking or not – and after being zapped he assured us that there was nothing wrong with the coil! Bob, Rob & Jeff had arrived in the Coupe in the meantime. After fiddling around with no success a quick call to Dave Shaw was made and in no time he was over and the problem had been diagnosed – a ceased dizzy. Dave then popped his boot and there lay enough parts to rebuild a car from the ground up! He had a spare dizzy but it wasn't the correct type to match our cap and leads so I then jumped in with the “Curry Coupe Crew” and headed off to scrutineering in a faint hope that someone could help us out with a dizzy.
On the way there Bob was giving the Coupe some curry and we got there in no time. As we pulled into the complex we saw a mass of GT's every which way we looked. It was at this point it all started to sink in that the Nationals was really getting underway! The quality and presentation of all the GT's there was second to none and I was going around like a headless chook not knowing which way to look as there was awesome machinery in all directions and this was just scrutineering – it was only going to get better from here!
Walking around I recognized a few Victorian GT's from the FGTCOA which I had seen on their website and online forum. Just before I had left home I left a post on the forum saying that I would be the curry fellah with the turban on – I figured it would be easier for people to recognize me than the other way around. I was looking Ford to meeting other people off the forum and putting some faces to names, as the day went on I ended up meeting quite a few of the fellahs which was really tops. After Bob's Coupe got scrutineered we left to go back to the stricken GT. We figured that time was running out to get the GT to scrutineering so we had to borrow the dizzy cap and leads out of Dave's Fairmont as a quick fix and use his spare dizzy. After a quick bit of Dave's “motor magic” we were off on our way to scrutineering with what appeared to be a V16 Windsor under the bonnet as we had left our cap and leads lying on the motor. Once back at scrutineering I was back into it again - running around like a headless chook checking out all the immaculate GT's and snapping away with the camera. Dad and I breathed a sigh of relief as the Candy got the nod from the scrutineers and we picked up our goodies bag which really did contain the GOODS – the number plate and the entrants shirt were top notch and the actual bag was a bonus! After the photo shoot in front of the large artwork backdrop we parked the GT and wondered around some more. Two of the cars that really caught my attention were Mick's Candy Apple Red XT GT (surprise surprise) which I had never seen before but had heard plenty about and John's Silver Fox XW GT which was looker tuffer and meaner than ever before with its recent mods, there was a healthy number of other Silver Fox's there that kept me happy as well!
Nearly every single GT that was leaving the scrutineering left in a “spirited” manner, the nationals were alive! Mick let his XT rip up the back road and goddam did it sound awesome! Whilst wondering around outside I “spotto'd” a Vermillion Fire Phase Three leaving and just as it was pulling out of the driveway the driver called out my name and sure enough it was one of the fellahs off the online forum. Yet another face had been put to a name. This Phase Three had caught my attention earlier when it was being redwalled because of its vinyl roof which was definitely different and it had a “Gregory's Ford” dealership sticker on the back (our GT was sold from the same dealer!)
There was this bloody beautiful Polar White XT GT parked on the side of the road so I thought this was the perfect chance for a couple of good snaps with the Candy and it, the two XT's really complemented each other well glistening away in the afternoon sun. After a few photos we headed back to the motel.
Once back at the motel we were advised to go check out the other corner of the motel where there was three GT's residing, who's motors had no “OK” stamps to be seen anywhere but had a whole lotta muscle! The culprits were Mick's XT GT with its neat cross ram intake manifold, twin Demon's and big fat single 3inch exhaust (which Mick was forced to fire up after many chants of “Fire it up Mick! Fire it up Mick!” – that is one seriously healthy sounding motor!), Val's XW GT armed with its Gurney Eagle heads and impressive intake setup, and Alf's Super Tuff Phase Two these had to be some of the meanest machines in Ballarat! Not to be outdone by the noise coming from Mick's XT's single exhaust Garrett was letting rip out of his “exhaust pipe” as well – I figured he must have had a bad batch of “fuel” which mixture wasn't quite right. After ooo-ing and ahhh-ing over the three beasts we went and grabbed a feed from the fish n chip shop with Frank and Dave then called it a day and went back to the room to get some shut eye. We figured we'd have to wake up early and grab a hold of the local yellow pages and start hunting for a dizzy for the GT, but just in case we let Dave know that we might need to borrow his cap/leads off his XW again to get us to the Show and Shine on Saturday.
Saturday 26 th March – Show & Shine…
We woke up early as planned and rang almost every wrecker in Ballarat but all to no avail, time wasn't on our side so we gave a quick call to Dave and Frank they headed over in Franks AU XR8 ute with the cap and leads, and we were mobile again. Problem was that we were now about and hour late! As we got to the City Oval the gates seemed closed and Dad parked the GT outside and I ran in to see if it was too late to slip the GT into the Show & Shine, the heart rate was redlining at this stage! After talking to an official we were allowed into the oval and slipped the GT at the end of the XT line up. Phew!
After taking a few breaths I stopped and had a look around – I was surrounded by the largest number of GT's id ever seen in my entire life!! WHAT A SIGHT IT WAS! This was it! With sooooo many GT's in every direction you looked I needed to come up with a plan of attack, I figured id start at the XR's then work my way around model by model… pfff so much for that idea! I ended up zig zagging all over the place from one GT over here to another over there, I thought I was running around like a headless chook at the scrutineering well I must have been running around like a steroid injected headless chook running on nitrous! After doing a quick scout lap of the oval I ventured back to the XR's where I spent a fair chunk of time drooling over Gary Watson's Gallaher Silver XR GT.
Hours seemed to go past like minutes as there was not enough time to check all the cars out. I figured I might as well go crazy with the digital camera and take as many pics as I could at least that way when I got back home I could check all the cars out again and remind myself of the sheer quantity and quality of GT's that were there!
There was plenty of Silver Fox XW's around, including a Phase Two which made me go weak at the knees (it was either that or because of all the walking around!). John's Silver Fox was drawing the crowds as it looked bloody awesome with all the race style decals on it. When it came to the Phase Three section there was more of them than you could shake a shaker at! All of them were real mickey mouse and Stuart's old True Blue Phase Three with the hole in the roof had to be the pick of the bunch.
All the walking around was starting to take its toll so I headed up to the grandstand to give the legs a rest and to take in a panoramic view of the oval. Sitting up there you could see a sea of red in the XT/XW sections and a big patch of Yellow Ochre in the XY section, and there was always a big crowd being drawn to John Goss's race XA Coupe.
After a lill sit down I was back into it again, starting at the legendary XR's again. Each time I swung past the XR's I saw Jason S wondering around having a very very good long hard look at each of the XR's inside and out. He must have been taking notes as his own “original maintained” XR GT was back home getting a “tidy up”. I betcha he spent the whole time at the XR's as Jason's believes that any model after the XR is just like a bad movie sequel – cant agree with you on that one!
Once I got to the XW's I meet Sean P who had a massive smile on his face. The reason was he had just met the original owner of his Reef Green XW GT who had recognized his number plate and asked him if he was the owner who then introduced Sean to the bloke who rebuilt the motor all those years back. How lucky is that!
It was time for a drink to replenish the tank, and what better way to quench ones thirst than by slamming down some cool spring water. I went a bought a bottle and when I read the label it said “ Mount Macedon – bottled at the source”.. hmmm not long later I ran into Rob M and I showed him the bottle. He assured me that it was bottled at the source with a smirk on his face.
As the time was nearing 4PM people started packing up and the whole oval came alive with that unmistakable Windsor & Clevo thunder. As the eyes had been working overtime since I entered the oval it was time to give them a rest and let the other senses take over – hearing the GT's fire up, feeling the roar and smelling the fumes – this is what was missing all day. I made tracks toward the Phase Three's; experiencing a Phase Three fire up is really something for the senses. As all these immaculate beasts (and I mean immaculate, some of these cars were so clean that I would willingly have open heart surgery on their undercarriages and engine bays) started rolling out I tried to find Dad and we warmed up the Candy ready to leave. Watching the GT's pour out of the oval really was something and occasionally you'd hear someone put the foot down going out the gates. The crowds were making their way to the exit gates to see the GT's roll out and soon it was our turn. As we got to the gate we saw Paul S who was gesturing to us to give it some, everyone was wanting the same thing – smoke and noise. It was only a short squirt till the roundabout but that didn't stop Dad, the foot went down and we gave the crowd a taste of Windsor power! Once we got to the next intersection we saw Garrett and his father standing in a prime spot amongst another horsepower hungry crowd. Garrett yelled out to Dad to give it a hit and show him what the lill Windsor was made of but Dad didn't want to attract any attention from the local authorities so he told him that the clutch was on the way so he couldn't, Garrett then proceeded to give us instructions on how to fix the clutch – it went something along the lines of “clutch all the way in, give it some revs, then do the big sidestep! And that should fix it!” Now isn't that the biggest load of crap you've heard – but we thought we give it a shot anyways! Hahaha! The lights went green and we were off! The crowd loved it as the lill Windsor opened up and took off. People were lining the street and there were cameras everywhere and thumbs up all around! Sure the static show and shine was tops but the REAL pleasure comes in driving these legendary beasts.
Back at the hotel we got ready for the Saturday night informal reception which was being held just up the road at the Bell Tower Motor Inn. Upon arrival at the Bell Tower I thought I was back at the show n shine as there was that many GT’s at this motel that they could have held their own mini-nationals! The informal nature of the night worked well as everyone had the chance to get up, walk around and meet people. Allan Moffat, John Goss and Bill Santuccione got up and shared their experiences (and secrets) with us which quite interesting and enlightening.
Word had got around that we were in need of a dizzy and our Candy Apple Red XT GT brother Phil C told us he had a spare dizzy with him – you’re a saviour Phil! After all the informal formalities Dad left with Phil to get the dizzy and went home, and I decided to hang around and catch up with some of the fellahs of the online forum. As the night wore on a few more faces were put to names and we all stood around chewing the fat. I met Chris, the lucky owner of that Vermillion Fire Phase Three with the vinyl roof again and we started talking for a while and somewhere amongst all the jokes and stories he offered to let me DRIVE his Phase Three! I told him that was only on my L’s and that I had literally never driven a GT before (yes it’s true! I know, I know shame on me) and I laughed the offer off as joke because as at this stage of the night I thought it must be the Jim Beam talking and thanked him for thought. I didn’t think much of it again as it was too good to be true. After a few more rounds we decided that the night was still young and that we would hit the town and check out Ballarat’s nightlife; the reception hall guards were telling us to get a move on anyway. We then made our way into the city. Not long after we walked into a place which seemed to be happening I lost the fellahs so I was on my own. Not to worry a quick call was made to the Curry Coupe Crew and I met up with them for what would be a very long and eventful night! The Curry Coupe Crew definitely knew how to have a good time as the two previous nights they managed to get home at around 6AM both days and tonight wasn’t going to be any different. Towards the end of the night (start of the next day?) we ended up bumping into Frank V again at a club which was going off and we partied into the wee hours of the morning. As the sun came up and our fuel tanks were close to empty we walked back to the Curry Coupe Crew’s motel and conked out. We only had an hour and a bit of sleep time before we had to get up and get ready for the drags.
Sunday 27th March – Drags at Ballarat Airport…
I dunno how but the fellahs managed to wake up and get ready in the morning despite having only a single digit worth of sleep in the last few days and we made it to the drags in good time and pulled up a seat on the mini-grandstand. Today was bound to be a ripper of a day – Falcon GT’s on full song, something that was missing the day before at the show & shine. The first car to run was John Goss in his resurrected XA GT Coupe race car and far out did it sound VICIOUS! Even though it was only an eighth mile Goss seemed to be giving to coupe the hurry up for twice that distance! After a few runs the #5 had blown the dust of the airstrip then left to make way for the rest. All I really remember of the drags was two things – smoke and noise – and lots of both! Gary Watson’s XR GT was definitely one of the biggest crowd pleasers with its insane high rpm wheel standing launches. The mighty XR managed to show up many of the Clevo boys!
There was quite a few stand out performers including John with his mean looking Silver Fox who was showing no remorse to his freshly redwalled tyres by constantly giving them hell each time he lined up at the Christmas tree, and the crowds were loving him for it – definitely another crowd favourite! ONYAFOXY! It was good seeing Mick, Val and Alf all line up against each other, and I bet that put and end to any horsepower arguments them fellahs would have been having before! Steve was letting rip in his Zircon Green XT GT as usual. His first run he botched the start and decided to smoke the tyres till the finish line – that’s the spirit! Steve only did a couple more passes but that’s all he needed to prove he owns the “Fastest XT GT in the World!”
Whilst sitting at the grandstand a familiar face came up to me and reached in his pocket and pulled out a brand new pair of L plates and passed them to me – it was at THIS very moment I flipped out BIGTIME because I realized Chris was serious about the drive in his Phase Three!!! I can’t recall what my reaction was to this at the time but I think it’s safe to say it was definitely an emotion I had never experienced before. The words stunned, amazed, shocked, awestruck, flabbergasted, dumbfounded, surprised, disbelief, all come to mind now. Actually, no seriously, words can’t explain how I felt at that very instant. A bloke who I had just met for the first time two days ago was offering me a drive in his ultimate pride and joy, the Greatest Australian Muscle Car EVER built, a car of legendary stature, a machine that is even beyond legendary and more mythical and religious to some, the one and only FORD FALCON XY GTHO PHASE THREE - and all of this without even thinking twice about it… I gladly accepted the L plates and put them in my back pocket and they never moved an inch from there. At this stage I didn’t give a stuff if I didn’t end up getting the drive, yes it sounds corny but it was the thought that counted. After this I had to sit down for quite a while to regain my composure. I got up and went for a walk to tell some of the mates about what had just happened. I couldn’t believe it even as I was telling the fellahs! Someone said I will probably be the first person to drive a Phase Three on the road before they even drove their own GT – and all of that ON MY LEARNERS!
Ok back to the action on the track, one of the most unfortunate incidents of the day was when a Diamond White XW GTHO lost its rear wheel which had clean snapped off at the axle, luckily it snapped only a few metres from the start line and the departing wheel didn’t damage the rear quarter. There was some very serious machinery there such as a red XW GTHO and a few very tuff Coupes. One of the serious machines was a XA GT sedan which on one of its runs ran off the track, which was a heart stopping moment for all who saw it. Thankfully the XA stayed on all fours and avoided disaster, I can’t remember what colour trim the XA had but after that incident I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned saddle! After a full on day of watching GT’s burn up the eighth (and beyond!) it was time for the owners to push their cars onto their awaiting trailers or nurse them home after a hard days work.
The airport runway was the perfect backdrop for a photo shoot so Bob threw me the keys to the Coupe and I lined it up with the Candy and took some top snaps. Once most people had left a few of the XR boys lined their machines up, including Gary’s three XR’s and Charlie’s XR. This made for one very impressive sight and the perfect chance for some more snaps. Dad and I then headed back to the hotel where Dave was waiting to slip in the dizzy, which he did in no time and just to make sure all was working well Dad threw Dave the keys and said go for a test run. I jumped in the passenger seat eagerly as I knew the Candy was going to cop a bit of hard time with Dave behind the wheel. A light drizzle had fallen and the roads were nice and slippery - not that the lill Windsor needs any help in spinning the tyres! Sideways up Sturt St we went laughing away at the thought of what the people behind us would be thinking as they would have been seeing the GT stepping out sideways on a regular basis. Conclusion: the dizzy was fine and the Windsor was going sweeter than ever and the recently reco’d diff/limo was doing it job too.
Back at the motel we grabbed a feed and a group of us gathered in our room and checked out the days pictures/videos on Rhys’ laptop and shared stories of the day at the drags. The Sunday night Dinner Presentation was our next stop and it was set out differently to the previous nights’ function as it was a more formal affair with everyone seated at tables. Dinner was served and the food wasn’t too shabby. The main idea of the night was to present the class winners and runners up with their trophies from the Show & Shine and the Drags. The trophies were being awarded in model order and each time a fellow FGTOCNSW member won an award the NSW contingent of the crowd erupted in applause! It was tops to see all of our members supporting each other – no other club made as much noise as us!
A BIG CONGRATULATIONS goes to all of the trophy winners!
Monday 28th March – Farewell BBQ…
After a good nights shut eye we were up and getting ready for the last day of the great event – the farewell BBQ. I checked the back pocket of my jeans for there extremely important contents just to see if the plates were still there and it all wasn’t just a dream. We signed out of the hotel room and headed toward the P.O.W. Memorial Park at Lake Wendouree but before we got there we met up with Frank and Janine and headed off to buy some oil for the freshly built lill Windsor. Once at the BBQ we searched for a level spot to park the GT so we could drain the oil and top it up with some fresh stuff for the trip home. As soon as we stopped I was out of the GT in a flash as there was a whole stack of GT’s glistening away in the sun waiting to be drooled at. Out came the camera again and I happily snapped away. I grabbed a quick feed and meet a few of our fellow club mates, including the XR bum chums Steve and Charlie.
This was a top idea to finish off the event and say all them final farewell’s and goodbye’s and slowly seeing all the GT’s roll out of the park one by one it began to sink in that the event was coming to a close… BUT there was still one thing left to do – DRIVE A PHASE THREE!! As the BBQ started to wind down I realised it wasn’t long till I would be behind the wheel of the Greatest Aussie Muscle Car EVER made. I reached into the back pocket once again just to reassure myself it really was about to happen. Not long later Chris came up to me and we started chatting with Jeff the owner of a rare Woodman’s Green XW GT and after a bit of chat Chris uttered the words “should we get going then?”
Chris fired the Phase Three up and as we waited for the legendary 351 4V HO Cleveland to warm up we carried on with checking out Jeff’s awesome XW GT and I started mentally preparing for what lay ahead. Chris asked if I wanted to drive it straight away and I said it would be best for him to drive for a bit then we’d switch over. I carefully dusted off my shoes and double checked for any other possible things that could damage the immaculate interior and then after about 351 big breaths I ever so carefully sat inside and clipped in the seat belt. HOLY $H!T I WAS SITTING IN A PHASE THREE!!!!.. Just sitting there looking out the windscreen at THAT SHAKER and looking down in front of me at THEM four letters on the glove box – G.T.H.O – definitely was something that would even get a dead mans pulse racing! Jeff had jumped in with us as well and after a lill while we were off. This wasn’t no used and abused Phase Three, in fact it had won Runners Up in the XY GTHO Unrestored Category the night before which made the whole experience that lill bit more awesome!
As we were cruising around I wasn’t saying much – I was just taking in every second of this rare opportunity. After a lill while I joined in the conversation with Chris and Jeff but I don’t think I was all there! Occasionally Chris gave the throttle a hit and sitting there watching THAT Shaker churn to one side under load was something I believe is IMPOSSIBLE to get bored of. After cruising around for a good 20 minutes Chris slowed down and pulled over and jumped out. Shit. This was it. I got out and passed a L plates to Chris who then stuck it in the back window. I rushed over to Jeff and handed him my camera and gave told him what to do. Snap! And what a photo it was – so good in fact I had to get it framed and put up on my wall at home! I tentatively walked around to the drivers side, opened the door, and sat my skinny behind in the driver seat… and there I sat for the next couple of minutes in a state of shock! Chris asked if we were going to get going soon and I said I just needed a lill more time to gather myself together! He just laughed. It’s not everyday a bloke you just met throws you the keys to his car and tells you to go for it. I just needed to take it all in. I’ve been in a handful of GT’s but I don’t think any other car out there will ever give me that same buzz as the Phase Three does. It is the Undisputed Legend! Phew. After a while in went the clutch, I grabbed first gear, checked the mirrors about 20 times then off we went! First, second, third and fourth. Blowing my mind each time I changed cogs at the thought of what I was driving.
Surprisingly it was a real easy to drive and I think I did a half decent job considering what my licence says, but then again everything at that moment seemed awesome. I was tempted to give the big Clevo a boot but before each time I did I asked Chris and then asked him if he was sure and then asked him again if he was sure that I could give it some and then again and again. Each time the foot went down my smile kept growing proportional to the rev’s the Clevo was doing! After cruising around for about 20 minutes or so the question was raised “Where are we?” I had no idea and neither did Chris of Jeff. After a bit of guesswork we headed back in a general direction which we thought would take us back to the BBQ and finally we made it back. As I pulled into the driveway everyone was waiting for our return as we had been gone for almost a good hour. The saying “time flies when you’re having fun” has never been truer! We jumped out of the Phase Three and I was asked “so how was it?” My reply “you’d need a semi-trailer to wipe THIS smile of my face!”
After a bit more chat and a closer inspection of Chris’ Phase Three it was time to head home. Final goodbyes were said and I thanked Chris for about the thousandth time and told him that he was an absolute legend for about the millionth. We all wished everyone a safe trip home and we were off in convoy with Frank’s BA, Dave’s XW, Frank’s AU ute and our XT. After topping up the tanks I jumped in with Frank V in the ute for the trip up until Albury where we all grabbed a feed at Hungry Jacks. As we were walking out after the feed we noticed up on one of the walls there was a lill poster of a Vermillion Fire Phase Three. As I looked up at the poster I thought to myself – “I’ve DRIVEN one of those!”
Time to head off and we said bye to Frank and Janine then I jumped in with Dave for a BLAST of a second leg of the journey to Goulburn (the less said about this trip said the better – for legal reasons. At Goulburn we had to wait for a while for Dad to catch up in the XT, after he rocked up I jumped back in the XT, Dave rocketed home and we headed off our way.
What a top event! Awesome cars! Top notch people! A credit to all the organisers and to all who bought their GT’s along to support the event! Definitely the Greatest GT show I’ve been too! BRING ON PERTH 2007! CAN’T WAIT!!!
- Sundeep -