Trackday no. 2

It was my 2nd ever track day yesterday and I was back at Eastern Creek Sydney again for another very well run Burrows Drive Day affair where the rich get to play with their toys.
As it was my 2nd time on the Eastern Creek track I opted to try and jump into the intermediates group for which I was accepted which was good. I knew the track in my head a bit this time, and being in the intermediate group I was allowed to get to the pits and warm up the car after just 20 minutes of safety briefings this time.
There were a few Lotus club people that came, with Rob and his Blue Lotus Exige Cup 240, James in his Red 8 year old 111s Elise, Angelo (my new dentist) bringing his Lotus Sport Exige GT3 car that he’s currently mid championship with for the 2007 Australian GT championship and lastly Mal with his Black Lotus Elise (not sure exactly what model).
The weather held out well all day with just enough cloud cover to stop it getting uncomfortably hot but enough to make the track surface hot enough to help the tyres start to melt for grip nicely.
During the day one of the best Lotus drivers in Australia maybe even the world currently, Dean Evans drove me in my own Lotus Elise, he’s a great driver and after near 10 laps of tuition of me in the driver’s seat he got me to shave around 4 seconds off my lap time! Here’s the now famous video on YouTube of Dean racing in the Elise Trophy that’s been all over the internet in circles.

Another highlight of the day was for me and my friend Rob to take the keys to a brand new Black Porsche GT3 (one of his friends) for a few km’s drive outside of the racetrack. We were on public roads so we couldn’t experience what it was capable of really but needless to say its power was almost brutal being the fastest naturally aspirated production Porsche ever created. It would be a dream of mine to experince this car in a proper situation some time and a dream to own one, one day.
In the pit garages, Rob’s lovely Blue Lotus Exige 240 Cup in the forground checking oil/water levels e.t.c before we go out on the track for our first session. Note the large dice, I think these are an extra 10 hp for Rob’s car im sure!
P9262778.JPG
My Elise in the foreground with James and his Red Elise and Angelo Lotus Sport Exige GT3 in the background
P9262781.JPG
James and Rob getting to know each other.
P9262789.JPG
The inside of Angelo’s Exige GT3, built purely to win a GT championship in which it did in the UK 2006 GT championships.
P9262783.JPG
A close-up of the cramped drivers cockpit area and large drivers LCD display
P9262784.JPG
My favourite and dream car of now in my favourite colour, the Porsche GT3 RS, unfortunately for me new for new price its nearly 3 times the cost of my car also 🙁
P9262794.JPG
I can’t get enough of this car, when I’m bored on the internet I just read up pages on this car.
P9262798.JPG
From all design perspectives it is just the perfect offering of a track car from Porsche’s motorsport division
P9262799.JPG
Cars cooling off in-between sessions, time for water and a discussion for the drivers.
P9262802.JPG
Of course Ferrari were very well represented again, with 6 owners bringing their cars this time.
P9262808.JPG
A stunning Lamborghini Murcielago was also there with its owner
P9262810.JPG
Always a very menacing looking car. I’d have one over a Ferrari any day by choice.
P9262811.JPG

Sidney in Lockdown

Yes ‘Sidney’ that’s what president Bush called our city last week in his US press statement.
It was all down to APEC, if your outside the Asia Pacific area you probably haven’t heard of it but its the equivalent of the UN in a lot of ways just for our side of the planet. APEC stands for Asia Pacific Economic Community.
It’s a week where all the Asia Pacific area world leaders come to one conference to talk about economic issues and to form deals between the countries. This year 21 world leaders were in attendance with the 3 biggest being the US president , the Chinese president and the Russian president.
To say there was extra security in place in the city was an understatement, for days the city has been in LOCKDOWN. As you can imagine Mr Bush brought 1000 support staff with him, that’s an actual figure, 250 of those were CIA security specialists, even his own snipers were brought inot the country. The Americans were the only allowed country to bring their OWN weapons into the country. The Russian’s asked for permission but were denied.
A photo of Police blocking off main streets into the CBD with riot ready police buses
P9082743.JPG
Police buses filled with police ready to go if riots started up, this is taken on Park st right next to Town Hall.
P9082746.JPG
All Bins were taped up for a week leaving people to put rubbish on top of or by the side of the bins.
P9082747.JPG
A look into the restricted zone in the citys CBD.
P9082749.JPG
A sign showing the seriousness of trying to enter the restricted zone
P9082750.JPG
The Opera house in lockdown as 21 of the world’s leaders are inside discussing their issues between countries. All the tourists that come to see the famous landmark were just greeted by 3 meter tall steel fences and armed police.
P9082751.JPG
Some of the peaceful protesters, a group of Chinese protestors and a police sergeant discussing with their leader what there plans were to do and urging them not to block the entry/exit of any APEC delegates.
P9082754.JPG
I knew they were around but it took me an hour to find a sniper. This one I spotted was on the roof of the InterContinental Hotel, the Hotel US president bush was staying in, could of quite possibly been a US brought in sniper.
P9082756.JPG
Lockdown central, all the fences keeping us the public away from anywhere near any APEC officials and goings on.
P9082758.JPG
A helicopter hovering over head with a sniper sitting on the door ledge. A helicopter was in the air all day and all night for the entire duration of APEC, that’s a lot of tax paid fuel to keep it in the air.
P9082761.JPG
Australian Army members manning the security checkpoints scanning cars on ramps for bombs and other devices as they drove around the city.
P9082759.JPG

1 bike and a Lotus

Well it was a long way but a motorbike and one of your best mates and your favourite sports car makes for a good days blast through the Australian countryside and what a blast it was, here’s the summery:
Here are the photos from Saturday’s road trip with AC to the Hunter valley and back in a day. He was on his bike he’s had for 5 months now and I was in the Lotus. We left at 8am and arrived back home after dark at 6:30pm. It was a long day of hard driving and we covered 520km in one day. We visited a couple of vineyards, we bought some wine and visited the Hunter valley olive centre and bought some Olives and some Jam for Sanna. We stopped at some quiet places on the way and met a few of the locals. We arrived home very tired, I fell asleep with the TV on in bed at half 9 but it was worth it.
P9012688.JPG
Keep on trucking, were getting the km’s under the wheels now, long straight roads for many km’s followed by twisty sections for many km’s.
P9012686.JPG
A quick stop to stretch the legs were needed quite often.
P9012705.JPG
Cruising along at a nice 60kph, time to look around.
P9012689.JPG
Ah Broke the south West gateway to the Hunter Valley as we come to a rest from driving the lovely ‘Putty road’ famous for being one of the best driving roads in the Sydney region.
P9022711.JPG
Lots of fatalities on the front of the car from driving at high speed for many hours, but they were fun hours and we saw lots of different roads and sights, oh there were some vineyards along the way and the bottles of wine made it in one piece in the small boot back safely too.
Next trip we made a plan to do the south coast roads, Wollongong and beyond, date TBA.