Well, its a little late to be updating since we are already home, but I wanted to let everyone know that Andy had another successful race night at Charlton Raceway. He won both the heat and the main. I just got the video up on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC8ZIayoG8c
We had to wait out a rain storm. The track crew did an amazing job of getting the track in shape to keep the show going. I just checked the Charlton Raceway website and saw that last Saturday's charity meeting raised over $10,000 towards flood relief in the area of Toowoomba. Andy and I are so greatful to have been able to take part in something like this to help out those in need in Queensland, especially after our wonderful experience there.
We stayed up celebrating the win and had a very late night then a very early morning to get to the airport. We left Brisbane at 9:00 am on Sunday and arrived in Phoenix at 1:30 pm Sunday. Kind of messes with your mind, doesn't it? :)
Neither Andy nor myself know how to fully express how greatful we are to Clint Kratzmann and his entire family. Not only did we get to experience the trip of a lifetime, we made some truly great friends for the rest of our lives. The only thing we can say is THANK YOU.
Hi Kat, it`s Scott here (Scooter).
I`m so glad you enjoyed your trip down here (and the pies,their a bit of a favorite of mine too)
It was a real pleasure to race against someone like Andy and something I hope I can repeat before I get to old and slow, well I`m already old and I am working on the slow.
Well I hope we get to catch up again and maybe keep in contact through facebook or email.
All the best,
Scooter
Its starting to sink in that our time here is almost up... :( This has been the most amazing experience.
It's 2:30 pm Friday afternoon and we just got back from our daytime trip down to Sanctuary Cove so we could get some good pictures of the yachts and see the Hyatt Regency in they daytime. It is so beautiful there. I can imagine staying there would be quite the vacation destination!
Gary will pick us up for a dinner tonight, he says its the best food in Brisbane. We are looking forward to that... but almost all of our meals here have been really good.
If I don't get a chance to update again before we leave here is what's planned:
Dinner tonight out with everyone, then Gary will take us to a lookout point where they say you can see the entire city. I will take the video camera for that since I don't think the still camera will be able to catch any of that.
Saturday morning we will leave for Towoomba. They are expecting over 160 cars in all different classes since it is a benefit for those affected by the floods. Clint says it will be more like a 2 day show split up between afternoon and night. Andy will be in the first batch that will run during the afternoon. We will stay at Clint and Pam's house Saturday night then get up early Sunday morning for a 9 am flight from Brisbane to Sydney. Then its on to LAX and home somewhere around 1:30 pm on Sunday.
I will try to update on Saturday night if I get a chance... if I don't thank you for following along with us.
It has been really warm and humid, about 31 degrees which is somewhere in the neighborhood of 90 for us, but it was 85% humidity. Talk about sweaty!!! :)
Thursday morning Clint picked up Andy for a round of golf. Since that's not my thing, I drove north to the Sunshine coast where we first stayed to a town called Mooloolooba and went to a place called Underwater World. It's like a smaller Seaworld. There was a seal show, and an otter show, and lots of interesting fish and things for me to read about. It was the perfect outing for me to do on my own.
I haven't talked about the pies yet, but I have fallen in love with them. Not the kind of pies we are used to, more like a pot pie but mostly a single serving size. Your basic pie is a flaky pastry with meat and gravy inside. I love them! Its a normal meal for an Aussie. So anyway, on my drive home, I stopped in for what might be my last pie for a while.
Thursday night was practice night where the 410 sprint cars were out and Clint was able to get the ok to bring his car out so that he could run a few sessions while Andy was still here to do a little coaching with him. I got some good video of the 410's practicing at Archerfield. Pretty impressive, will try to get that up soon but I haven't downloaded or edited that yet.
Sorry for the delay in getting the blog updated, I'm finally able to access this site from the internet kiosk at the hotel.
Wednesday Andy and I drove south to an area called Tamborine Mountain. There is a skywalk and trail through the rain forest there. It was just absolutely beautiful and amazing! I posted the pictures, but it just doesn't really do it justice. It was extremely humid there, and the frogs in the trees made so much noise! Also, tons of butterflies floating around. What an amazing experience. It's easy to see why they are very concerned with conservation here in Australia, with all their amazing environment.
After we got back to the hotel, Gary picked up Andy for an evening of work on the car, getting it ready for the next practice night and race day. I stayed at the hotel and finished laundry then relaxed in front of the tv.
We got up Monday morning and headed down to the shop to wash the car. After getting it all cleaned up and back in the shop, I headed out on my own to go pick up lunch. I think I only broke a couple laws, but managed to get back to the shop ok. :)
Gary took us to a fantastic seafood dinner in a beautiful area called Sanctuary Cove. There were the most amazing yachts at the docks there. It was after dark when we got there, so I think we will definitely be going back there in the day so we can look around some more and get some good pictures.
Clint and Pam took us down to the Gold Coast… we went to Surfer’s Paradise. It is the most beautiful beach! We walked around the downtown area, its quite the tourist destination and full of great shopping. We walked around, did a little shopping, and stopped for a drink.
On our way back, we stopped for a tour of downtown Brisbane. What a beautiful city! Also, it was amazing to see how much cleanup has been done since they’ve had their floods 2 weeks ago. You can hardly tell they just went through major flooding there. The city has the most amazing architecture that Andy had a good time taking pictures of.
After we got back to the house, Clint prepared a wonderful bbq dinner. Gary and Ann came over and we enjoyed a nice dinner with everyone.
Well, I'll start with the news everyone wants to know first... Andy won tonight! I got video of it all, but don't have it edited and ready for upload yet. Will let you know when it is done and ready for viewing.
We started out Saturday morning with a delicious breakfast cooked by Clint outside on the grill... bacon, eggs, sausage, and toast. We got to try out vegemite today. I can't speak for Andy but I have to say that I didn't mind the taste. I think it would take a little getting used to but it definitely was not bad.
Clint and Andy took Blake with them to go pick up the car and I stayed at the house with Pam and Rhys so that I could get online to get everything updated and pay bills since its payday at home. I also managed to get a few loads of laundry done and a little reorganizing on our suitcase which had been looking like a bomb went off in it.
Andy and I headed out to the track with Gary around 3 pm. It was kind of intimidating going to a track and not knowing anything about what to expect for drivers meetings, lineups, etc. As most tracks back home run things pretty much the same, it isn't that big of a deal to go to a new track for the first time. But neither of us had that feeling going out today. Thankfully, everyone is just so nice they don't seem to mind all our questions about everything.
There were about 10-12 modlites and dwarf cars... I never did take the time to do a count. The modlites and dwarf cars run together and the announcer called them dwarf cars rather than mod lites. I think the class is still in a bit of a transition phase but will probably be all mod lites before too long. Anyway, they ran 3 heat races with all cars in those heats with different lineups. Andy started 3rd row outside of the first heat and finished second. He was leading a caution-filled second heat when he spun in turn 4. At that point the race was called due to time, so I'm not sure where he was scored on that one. He won the third heat and lined up on the outside pole for the main. The other fastest car there was on the pole. They had a good drag race into turn one at the start, but having the high line was definitely not to Andy's advantage. The #55 pulled away from Andy and it was starting to look like he was going to have to settle for second. Luckily for us, #55 got tangled up with some lapped traffic which gave Andy the perfect opportunity to take over the lead and he held on for the win. It was an extremely rough track for what we are used to. I watched the 250 microsprints out there and just thought there is no way I would be able to run through that like they are without getting on my head. According to everyone here, tonight was pretty good track conditions. Pretty amazing!
Friday morning was another beautiful sunrise over the Pacific. Andy took this morning's picture since I was still being lazy in bed. We had the rest of our fresh pineapple for breakfast (or brekky here YUM!) and got loaded up and checked out of this fantastic beachfront timeshare apartment.
We took the tourist route back to Kratzmann's, and stopped for some more brekky at a roadside fruit shop / cafe. Got some good pictures there and had the most amazing banana smoothie ever tasted. Andy even made sure to get a picture of one of the plants "especially for Charlotte, she will really like this one". I took some more pics around the fruit stand and on our drive back towards the shop, to try to give an idea of how much it feels like rain forest here, and how green it is... just beautiful!
We got back to the shop and met Tony, who works on Brent Kratzmann's sprint cars. He is just a super nice guy and I noticed how similar he and Andy's work approach was when it comes to preparing and working on the cars. We saw their car hauler, which is quite interesting its like the trailer is attached to the truck... I should have got pictures yesterday, but I will remember to get some next time I can. Andy got to work on buttoning up the car for racing tomorrow, and I read a book then tried to do a little work that I brought with me.
We went to lunch with Merv, who owns/runs the modlite organization here. It was really interesting talking over lunch about how it is more efficient for the people in Australia to just import their cars, and also a bit eye opening to see how many business people in the states don't seem to have much care for keeping good business relationships going.
After lunch it was back to the shop for some final prep work on the car, and even a job for me to do. I changed out the spacer and hub on the steering wheel. Always like to have a good task to work on. :)
Tonight through the rest of this weekend we are staying at Clint and Pam's lovely home. I haven't had a chance to get some good pics here yet, but I will be working on that too. Clint's mom and dad Ann and Gary came over to watch the boys, and we took a cab near the downtown Brisbane area to a restaurant called the Breakfast Creek Hotel that is the best steak in Australia, as told by Clint and Gary. I know we haven't been to all of Australia to find out otherwise, but I'm certainly going to agree with them! They also serve beer from wood kegs there, which I understand was very good. We spent a nice evening out with some drinks after dinner, and then on the cab ride home, got a bit of a tour and drove through a very beautiful and expensive hilltop neighborhood to get a look at the city.