Well the weekend went well and look I’m so organised that I’m even posting about it at the start of the week instead of two weeks later as seems to be my habit…..lol.

I must warn you that this post will be fairly photo intensive as you just can’t sum up the weekend in just one or two photos let alone words - well I can’t anyway…vbg.

The big plan was Ashley was not working Friday morning and we would head to Sea Lake Friday afternoon when the kids finished school.  As always the plan didn’t work and he worked nearly all day so we didn’t leave until after tea Friday night.  Deciding just to take the Bus with the race car on the back seemed like a good idea until the oil pressure on the bus dropped alarmingly, of course by this time it’s 7 pm and pitch black and we are 30 kms from home, so we had to turn around and limp home - praying we would make it with very little or no oil in the engine.  We made it and Ashley and his mate Mick spent until 11 pm trying to find where the oil was leaking from and repairing it - with some success but not lots as we found out the next day.

Saturday we are up at 6 am.  Did you know the sun isn’t even up then????  Shocking….vbg.  Off to Sea Lake again (remember it’s only about 70 km from home) where we finally arrived after stopping on the way to pour in more oil as it’s still leaking out from somewhere.

By this time Ashley is fairly nervous, I’m trying to keep the younger two kids calm cause they are bouncing off the walls at the thought of dad racing and Elise is trying to study for a Maths exam.

James was a big help when it came to getting Ashley kitted out ready to race.  This was Saturday and just the prologue to work out his time which gave him a start position.

He was placed 54th out of 78 cars - not bad as he didn’t want to push it too much in case something vital broke.  Saturday’s weather I might add was stunning.  Slight breeze blowing away from the spectators hill so we didn’t get covered in dust, sun was shining and it was a real family day.

We headed home after the prologue.  We were going to stay at Sea Lake but the alternator was slipping and we needed to add more oil so opted for the safer trip of heading home in day light.  The Range Rover would be pulled into service and would bring the race car back on Sunday.

Sunday (again still dark at 6 am) was also really foggy but had the promise of being a lovely day.  Not so - heavy cloud, cool wind and chilly temps meant that Elise and I spent the day well rugged up watching the action.  Nicola and James decided they didn’t want to come back so they spent the day with Mum.

Ohh in case you’re wondering that big lake/water/salt pan you see at the back of the cars is actually Lake Tyrrell and the race course runs around there.  There are sections where you do drive on the lake apparently, there are plenty of trees and fence posts to dodge, gates to fit though and holes that at the briefing drivers were warned that if you fall in one you may not get out.  Scary stuff.  I mustn’t forget to mention that all the roads are dirt and some were muddy so guess how not clean everyone was when they came in from racing.

Everyone was lined up and waiting on the start line when an announcement came over the PA that there had been an accident somewhere out on the course and the start would be delayed for an hour.  One of the course officials had an accident on his motor bike and needed to be taken to hospital.  We haven’t heard how things are but he was supposed to be ok - just very confused.

That wait stretched to two hours which didn’t help anyones nerves at all.  There was lots of checking out the competitors cars and chatting done by the drivers and navigators.

Finally the all clear was given after another briefing and they headed back out to race.  Over 100 drivers, navigators and officials create quite a bit of dust we discovered.

Nearly Ashley’s turn. He was waving to Elise and I sitting on the spectators hill at this stage.

And he’s off!!!!  Can I just say by this stage I didn’t realise just how nervous I was. I was positively shaking in my chair.  I know Ashley is a good driver and the car and his racing gear are the best we can get - but that doesn’t stop me worrying.  So I did what all Sane Quilters do…….I pulled out the Birthday Quilt and started sewing down the binding…..vbg.  It did help calm the nerves - it was top shaking or stick a needle into my finger.

This was the closest jump to us and even it was a distance away.  Thank heavens for the “landscape” setting on my camera.  Ashley tells me that this was a fairly mild jump - there were others much bigger.  I’m sooooooo glad I didn’t see them.  Because the race was delayed for so long instead of doing four laps (each approx 80 kms in length) the officials shortened it to three laps and you only had to do two to qualify as having raced…..

…..which was possibly a good thing as Ashley limped home the last five kilometres of the second lap with the wheel tied to the bonnet.  He said he was going really well.  Not really pushing it, but passing plenty and taking it easy though the dust as you really couldn’t see at all.  Suddenly he felt a shudder and next thing he knew his left hand front wheel was beside him not in front and attached as it should be.  Personally I thought he was just trying to loose a bit extra weight and race on just three wheels, but a friend informed me that it’s actually illegal to race with just three wheels!  Honestly nothing like taking the fun out of it all….roflmol.  The welds that held on the wheel and bits associated with it failed in two or three places so there was nothing he could do but retire - happy though that he had survived the carnage that had happened out there.

This was the result of another friends car hitting a tree.  He said the dust was so thick that all of a sudden there were three or four cars all piled into one another and the only place he had to go was up a bank and into a big tree - which didn’t apparently move!!  The friend is ok a bit sore and sorry for himself, but the car will take heaps of repairs to get it running again.