Saturday September 6th, 2003

A bright and early start for me today. I arrived at Bathurst last night at about 7pm. Still recovering from the flu, I went to bed early, but getting up at 5am is still hard (especially on a weekend).

After breakfast I headed out to the car park, and jumped in one of the cars that was heading out to my stage (Burnt Yards). I think this was one of the longest stages. Just over 10km long, and along some very beautiful scenic roads.

It took a little while to set the stage up, and post all the road closure notices, but we got it all setup in time. I was working at the stop point, recording the times. I set up a little table, got a comfy chair, and sat in the cold waiting for the cars to come through.

The "T" cars (touring) had to do the stage in 9mins and 14 secs. It was awesome watching them come screaming over the hill, and then come to an almost stop, as they waited for the right time to (slowly) go past the flying finish.

After the stage, we headed back to Mt Panorama (where we were staying). I watched a little of the action of the cars take on the esses, and then had a nap before heading over to the Bathurst light car club for dinner.

Another 5am start today. I packed the car up with all my gear, headed over to breakfast and then headed out to my stage for the day "Walang".

At less than 2km long, it was a lot easier to set this stage up, than Burnt Yards. I was working at the start point today, and was recording start times.

At 9:48 the stage was declared "green" and we sent the first car through. A lot of the cars were there early, and it was nice to see all of them lined up ready for the stage.

We got through 60 of the cars sending them out at 1min intervals, and then we couldn't find the final 2. After about 10 mins they finally turned up. (they got lost. hehe)

I headed home after packing up. I was planning on heading over to Homebush (where the final stage is) but fell asleep watching TV, and only just woke up about 1 hour ago (at about 9pm).

It was a really good event, and I think it would be awesome to compete in (if only I had the money).

For more info - check out the website - http://www.eastcoastclassic.com/