The weather was so bad that 2 out of the 7 bikes in their group had gone down in the wet, one of them his, and the other a brand new Hayabusa - twice - once on each side. Then they arrived. Imagine putting 7 fully clothed blokes in giant dirty fish tank for 3 hours and you'll imagine the expressions on their faces. But did that stop them? 4 cans of Jim Beam later and the stage was set up and they were on.

The concrete floor of the bar made for excellent riding, maybe too good, as before long there were burnouts and stupidity going on every few minutes. I was totally knackered and left at around 10:30 (plus I knew if I had any more of Irish Greg's secret Poteen stash that I wouldn't be doing much tomorrow), but before I left I got to see Ricky the tyre man rock into the bar on a kids quad bike, which he then rode right up to the bar itself, then into the bar, and then up the bar until it flipped over, all while holding a drink in one hand. This kind of thing happened all night apparently.....

The Sloth Industries FMX riders have arrived with their converted ramp truck and realised they can't park on the grass without being there until summer due to their original set up location being a bog due to the rain. Some quick thinking and rearranging needs to take place!

While this was going on something caught my eye in the distance on the runway. I suddenly realised what it was - a bike barrel rolling down the track about 3 feet off the ground at high speed, followed by a rider doing the same thing. Shit. This could be bad. Once both had come to a stop and and an erie silence hit the place, Pesh jumps up in a star jump fashion and does a little dance. Turns out he had been doing a high chair wheelie at around 100kph when the gear box let go crashing the front down and causing a massive tank slapper which in turn lead to a highside and barrel

Meanwhile, Rick (Scrotary) is leading the ride out this morning and is hovering around the end of the bar eager to get going, but by now the clouds have come over again. I never did ask if he got the ride out that morning or not?? The weather seemed to be scaring a few - but not the hard core stunt riders and drag racers who didn't give a shit, yet again the noise of burnouts and bikes at full noise filled the air (along with the massive PA system pumping out some rather loud tunes).

Around 10am I walk past the burnout cage on my way to the runway. I look in to see Pete's 300hp Turbo Busa powered GSXR 750 just sat their with a shredded rear tyre, enough rubber to keep Asia in condoms for a year behind it, and steam billowing from the radiator cap, yet there's nobody in sight. I'm guessing a lot of action had just taken place. Damn my timing.

I find out where everyone is pretty quick. The timing lights are taking a little longer to set up than anticipated so the stunt boys have taken it on themselves to do an impromptu show, culminating in a 10 bike nose to nose burnout. The crowd loved this one!

I leave everyone watching the drag racing start and hear the unmistakable sound of 2 strokes. Over the top of the 'Show n Shine' marquee I see a motocross bike fly through the air. Now this is usually pretty cool by itself but as I come around the corner the stunt cage has a few street riders doing some crazy arse stuff, so to watch them going off while 3 motocross bike fly over them in the background brings a smile to my face. This is bloody great.

The Show and Shine competition brought some awesome bikes out of the woodwork, including Large's TL Spondon, Oldskool's pristine Slabby fighter,

Bear's radical R1, Sharky's oldskool FJ, Tony's amazingly painted GSXR1000 plus the usual suspects like The Judge and Pete's T 7-13. This year Shannons Insurance came along to do the judging plus give $500 of insurance to the winning voting slip that was pulled from the hat. This got people voting like crazy - unlike last year...

As the afternoon drew on, the bar got well busy as it was perfect viewing for the stunt cage. Eventually when the main area closed at 6pm and just prior to an almighty storm, it also turned into perfect refuge, kicking off with Bitchfish's band and a mad pirate band called "Scurvy" that came on in pirate outfits. Mad as hatters, just what we like.

A few cases of beer later and impromptu stunt shows started cracking out in the stunt area again, eagerly egged on by beery bar patrons. I was watching the band as the main one of these sessions kicked off. It wasn't until the flash of light caught my attention that I was momentary distracted from the music. The flash of light just happened to be a 2m high wall of flames! One fire extinguisher session later I find out the whole story. Turns out Andy, not wanting to be out done, had decided to do a burnout on his pocket bike