False Start

For Christmas last year, my wonderful girlfriend gave me a V8 Race Experience. This is conducted on the short track at Eastern Creek Raceway (for Sydney-siders, and at various other tracks around the country). The short track at Eastern Creek is basically the "Flip Flop" which joins Turn 4 to Turn 9 and cuts out the section of track that runs around "Corporate Hill". They give you the option of driving a Ford or a Holden. The cars start as standard Falcons and Commodores, but they get a roll cage, racing seats and harnesses, modified exhaust (and don't they sound awesome!!), slick tyres, a locked diff (I think) and a body kit that makes them look like a V8 Supercar.

This morning I wake up and it is raining. That's not a good start, because they don't run the drive days in wet conditions. The cars run on slick tyres, ie. no groves to disperse water on the track, hence the not running in the rain rule (click here to see what can happen in the wet on slicks). There is a number to call that gives a recorded message with info about the weather and track conditions. During the day the weather cleared up and the sun was shining. A couple of calls to the weather hotline and the it appears that the weather is clear and the track is dry and the cars are running, albeit they are somewhat delayed due to the morning rain. That's OK, I was booked in at 3pm, she'll be right.

So, I head out to the track. You have to be there 15mins early to register and sign on etc. At this point you can also take the option of purchasing a DVD of footage from your drive for $49. I take this option. They give you a blank DVD in a case that you give to your driving instructor and he pops it into a DVD recorder in the car and you get a recording from a couple of cameras in the car that point at your face while driving and out the front of the car at the track.

Next is the drivers briefing. The guy runs through some racing techniques and safety type stuff. This lasts about 30mins. After this they send you to the pits to get into a race suit and helmut. At this point during our day, some guy in a car on the track has run off the circuit and hit the wall. The cars that are currently on the circuit are stopped and the onsite paramedics are dispatched. All is fine there are no serious injuries to either the driver or the instructor, however the session has been delayed to make sure that everything is OK. Safety is paramount for these guys.

So here we all are. About 25 guys (and 1 girl) were all suited up waiting in line to drive either a Ford or a Holden (I was in the Ford queue, because Fords are better). Just as we are thinking that we are about to get a drive, the black clouds roll in and the rain tumbles down. Oh, this isn't good. It's 4pm. The cars have to be finished on the track by 5pm. The track has to be dry before the cars to go out. And it is raining. That is not a good equation. When it was still raining at 4:30 there was no chance we would be going out on the track. I now need to re-book for another time. The next block of dates are in July, so I'll call them in the morning and re-book.

John Bowe was there too, today. V8 Race offer a John Bowe Experience where you get some flying laps with John.

I was really looking forward to getting out and driving a V8 Race car. Oh well. I hope it isn't raining next time.

UPDATE: Re-booked for Wednesday 8th July. :-)