Wow what a weekend.
Once again great to catch up with old mates - even though I have only been once previously they seem like old mates - and put faces to other forum contacts!
The truck drive down was eminently uneventful. Yes I decided not to risk shoddy roads, clueless wildlife, and potential mechanical mayhem and did the cowardly thing and transported the old girl in my truck! I had initially been going to sleep in Goondiwindi but found the truck had made better progress than I figured so I made it to Moree before nightfall. My attempt at sleeping in Moree was rather fruitless as it just felt creepy... Since it didn't feel right I broke my intention of not driving at night and made tracks. By 60kms out of Dubbo at 1AM I was flaked and fortunatly Gilgandra truckstop on the other hand was all peaceful. Waking up by 7 left me a short drive into Dubbo to start soaking up Toyota Nationals.
Friday was all about flat out gasbagging and engaging in my love of hard work - golly I could watch it all day!
There are a couple of advantages to owning a turd which cannot be polished!Saturday's show-n-shine while not my usual scene saw my celica on display with all the other cars. It was a little sad to note the very small contingent of classic celicas at this years event. The quality of several however was exempliary and you could almost see the money dripping off them! Damn a man can but dream...!
The afternoons motorkhana madness was as usual an awesome spectacle of vehicles being driven in controlled fury (mostly controlled)! I love seeing owners punting their cars around like they have been stolen.
Ahh Sunday and the 1/8th mile drags! Traction is somewhat limited for all involved due to the unprepared airstrip surface but adds to the charm. Tyres scrabbling for grip and screaming for mercy as they are relentlessly tortured by too much power and/or enthusiasm! I must have been a little too over anxious to bust a good number as I managed to miss gearchanges on a number of runs. My best of the day was an 8.5 second run which was fairly respectable. I wound in an extra 4psi of boost for the days last timed run but didn't manage to get a clean pass... When they allowed a final untimed grudge run I managed to line up all the dots and it felt fantastic - anti-lag crackling and banging on the line, clutch disengaged cleanly, gears found in correct order, and seat of the pants being pushed up my freckle by acceleration - yeah that was a good run and a big pity there was no time card. May or may not have been better than 8.5...
The presentation dinner had a couple of incidents better left undescribed however I came away with 'Best Sleeper' award!
My trip home monday started at 6.30am and finished 15 hours later at 11.30pm that night.
There was a little of the 'Thelma and Louise' routine despite trucking the celica...
Yes thats the celica unloaded off the truck in the middle of Qld outback ready to drive for diesel.
I ran out literally 5kms from the service station being aimed for! That cost me an hour all up and was an interesting break in the trip! Once again I had not intended to drive at night however I was still feeling fresh come nightfall so I pressed on to make it home to my darling wife! Cheers,
Jason
At this point I was going to pack the car away and enjoy watching the racing as there was also fuel dripping from the rear accelerator pump indicating the diaphram didn't like the pressure spike either... A group of mates came over and produced gaskets and diaphram for the holley plus a large aluminium washer to attempt repair of the broken carb hat. After a couple of goes we got the hat to retain boost while testing on anti-lag so I was able to front for the first round of racing!!! 
