Warwick Qld was the venue for the bi-annual Nationals at Easter hosted by The ZCar Club Qld this year and was attended by Brian & Barbara Haines, Darren Godfrey and myself as well as a couple of other members who attended the Motor Sports events.
Let’s firstly Congratulate Brian and Darren who won 1st and 3rd respectively in the 1980’s series Best Nissan Vehicles – Well Done Guys!
The Trip up was lots of fun from Sydney via Maitland/Tamworth and overnight stay at Armidale on Thursday. Friday set off for Warwick via Tenterfield with Rain/BoozBuses/Police/Cameras and Lots of Trucks to play amongst
Arrived at Morgan Park Raceway for registrations for the Show & Shine due Saturday as the sun broke through to enable us to find and book into the Motel and Clean and Shine our cars until dark.
Saturday morning was awaken by torrential rain and the water was running off them in rivulets due to the highly polished condition from all the hard work polishing till dark!
Off to the Track for Judging which was completed in about 1 minute per car in the heavy rain, unfortunately and they all got water in them as they had a quick look inside doors/ hatches and bonnets, anyway we all visited the Garages along Pit Lane and met and spoke to old members and friends we had met at previous Nationals and Shows and watched some hairy racing in the heavy rain with many sliding off the track quite often (turn 1 was the most exciting after coming down the straight at speed, cars were either sideways or aquaplaning straight through the corner and we had the best spot to watch the excitement, this was quite a treat for Brian, Barb & Darren to see Zeds out performing 1200’s 1600’s some turbo’s and some later Nissans
Sunday saw Darren and I back at the track to watch more serious racing in finer weather with a couple of crashes as the speed increased we had a vantage point on the overhead bridge and could observe most all of the track from here. Brian and Barb went on the conducted Mystery Run around the district which they thoroughly enjoyed and travelled almost 200ks and saw a lot of interesting surrounding areas
Sunday Night was the Presentation Dinner and both Brian & Darren did us proud, I even was call up during the VIP Acknowledgments and presented with a Bottle of Champaign for being an All round Nice Guy (which you all probably knew)seriously I was impressed because of the company I was included in, namely Alan Stein the clubs Founder 30 years ago and their Patron and also the Ex- South African Safari Rally Zed Winner who’s name escapes me sorry.
Monday packed up and left for Tamworth via Tenterfield and The Haines dropped off to visit Inverell and Darren and I pushed on in heavy rain with even more trucks to contend with which was our biggest annoyance of the whole trip and dangerous as well when they showered us with rocks by running off the edges and going too fast as to not be overtaken or coming toward us and drowning us with their wash for several seconds is very stressful and daunting.
Well got to Tamworth and after filling decided to push on to Scone or Muswellbrook light permitting still had about 90mins of light we thought,
– Big Mistake!!!
As we were going over the Great Dividing Range only some 20mins later this Cyclonic Storm from the Barrington Tops Crashed us with Trees/Branches and with torrential Rain and viability down to 50mts. And the struggling Zed Wipers and those Bloody Trucks with their Searchlights and drowning/buffering speed was terrifying (just ask Darren and he was driving a modern car compared to mine)
After sighting 2 cars crashed off the road and nowhere to stop we pushed onto the first little town with a little motel light which reminded me of the movie “Psycho” any way it did us and the next morning pushed through to Sydney and would you believe Pennants Hills Road closed due to accident in the sunshine?
Quick diversion down Pacific Hwy Mona vale Rd M2/M7 and M5 and home in last 30mins of Heavy Rain!!!!!!
After all that the Zeds performed beautifully and absolutely reliable and mine averaged door to door 1,880 Ks with 170Lts @ just over 9l/per100ks not bad for an old girl!
And the trip with all of the difficulties was full of adventure great camaraderie and interesting travelling and it was unfortunate we didn’t have more representatives, but we will for the next one in Sydney in 2017 – Cheers,
Kind Regards
Les-260