Gix11
ASF XMAS BASH at HEATHCOTE PARK RACEWAY - VIC December 2011
by
, 05-12-2011 at 05:51 PM (41136 Views)
A big weekend!
Ok, for those of you that couldn't or didn't make it, here's a quick run down of what you missed....
Even though the morning started with me wearing a pair of jeans and a leather jacket just to keep warm in supposed summer (I am from QLD after all), the day did actually turn out really nice. The sun was out and the wind was at bay, and nigh on perfect drag racing conditions had been bestowed on us. It was going to be a good day!
After catching up with BanditRod and his crew people started to trickle in. The first bike that grabbed my attention was Pab13's beautiful purple 'Busa. I'd never seen it in person before and the finish is amazing. A few minutes behind him was Dylan with his latest Bandit build, and although he claims he'd thrown it together there was a lot of polishing that had been done. It looked just as good as the photos we'd seen on the forum, if not better.
Not long after that a few familiar faces turned up grinning like Cheshire Cats. Clint had somehow managed to maintain his record for not making it to the event on his actual bike after breaking down with no power some time before. Luckily the Cheshire Cat crew picked him up. Ben and Boxer were like kids at a toy shop and couldn't get their gear on fast enough.
No long after that Kevkatana, Latheboy and 80's freak showed up. Ivan had his GSXR750 turbo tuned to perfection and Geoff was keen to see how the big GSX1100 turbo was going to go on it's maiden drag run. Tinkering away in the background were the Drag kings "Bones" and Greg Watters, AKA Booster with some serious drag strip machinery.
Prior to the first run Dangerous Dave who had been on site since 4am (keen as mustard) gave everyone, including the photographer, something to have a good look at. This is after he'd travelled through the night and was part way through jobs. The bloke is a legend!
After that the strip came alive and the flow was relentless. Everybody got as many runs as they could possibly want. The track had been recently resurfaced and reports were it was as smooth as a babies bum. Due to an inner ear infection I was yet again confined to the side lines, but the sound of burnouts, screaming bikes and laughter filled the afternoon wherever you were at the track.
As always, somebody turned up extra late and had to get into a closed gate, with some excuse about having to do his hair or something, but sure enough Brad from Bikecraft did eventually show with his uber cool Buell. What a bike! The detail is amazing and it was my first viewing of it. He still managed to get his lid on in time and had a few runs on his Fireblade 'fighter which he also brought with him.
Not long after that the sun started to come down and the racing came to a close, but unfortunately so did the canteen and bar. This left us with a problem, 50 hungry riders and no food. A pizza run was in order. The local pizza guy must have thought it was Christmas or the biggest wind up ever when we asked for 30 pizzas, but true to form, after the 19km trip back into town the little Indian dude had actual made all 30 pizzas! Well, I say 'had made' but I should say 'was in the process of making'. This meant we had time to sample the local pubs. Groovy man. Large downed the fastest can of JD I have ever seen and we were introduces to 5 Seeds, in fact a case of on the way home followed by coppers....
We got back and created what looked like one of those Piranha feeding frenzy films, it was all pizza boxes, arms and legs, then when the dust settled there was like a half eaten piece of garlic bread left on the side. Shortly after that the home made beer bong (or gay/girls bong as I think Banditrod called it because it only housed one bottle of beer) came out. A chug on that plus a trophy was awarded to DazzyFZ750 who had beaten everybody out on the track all day and won the best of the day award.
Just as we thought things were getting a bit messy, a sound that anybody who's ever been to the GP or Supers at Phillip Island started to emanate from outside the shed we were all in. Yep, it was the drone of the big SV being piloted by Nudieboy. Now anyone that knows what I'm on about knows what was happening but if you're unfamiliar that has to be as much as you know, as this was the point that we were told we were "worse than the patch clubs". Although that sounds ominous all was ok in the end and the night carried on until the early hours with Rod and Kev claiming to be the last men standing, although Wacky has something to say about that...
All in all it was a great weekend, much in the vain of the old AFR events in Casino (for anybody that remembers them). If you didn't go you, I'm pretty sure you will next year!
A massive thanks goes out to Russell Clark who owns the Heathcote Raceway track who made the weekend possible and put up with us. Also a big thanks must be given to Deano who came up with the whole concept and Banditrod who helped with the organising of the whole thing. Cheers to everyone that made the effort to get there and here's looking forward to next year!
oh, and there may be a video to come........