The Honda Car Club of Victoria did nearly all of their homework very well to put together a pretty good National Meeting. Working away from home they had a difficult job, but the pieces came together and everyone enjoyed themselves some of the time, most attendees enjoyed themselves most of the time and some of us enjoyed ourselves all of the time.
We nested at the Merriwa Park Motel, deep in the heart of Wang. Now that the highway by-passes Wang this isn't too bad. The room that I shared with Ray Mobbs (Ray still doesn't like the expression that we slept together, but he does talk in his sleep. Very interesting.) had a reasonable view across into the park over the duck pond. We monopolised the car park with here a Honda, there a Honda, everywhere a Honda. Pity was that there were some non-Hondaphiles staying there and we got some nasty looks and scowls from the non-believers. Bah humbug. (Psst. Wanna buy a red Honda? We got everything from Civics to an NSX. No bull. All low kilometres, lovingly sprinted on approved racetracks, only on Sundays.
I arrived at the designated time on Good Friday, having dawdled through the countryside down from the Murray River. Reception told me that their was a chap in a cap looking for me! Who could it be? After checking in and finding David Keeley I was still none the wiser. Out of the corner of my eye I'd noted an MX5 parked out the front of the motel and had wondered how far they were from the MX5 national meeting. Suddenly up pops Dave Waller! Yes, it is his MX5, so the connection was apt. Suddenly Queensland had the numbers! With the 3 of us competing, surely we should be able to bring that Perpetual Trophy home with us! But alas, no, Dave and David would not be running in the sprint and only David in the motorkhana. It was still all up to me, well, almost.
We dined and breakfasted together and got to know who snorts their Rice Bubbles and who does what with Froot Loops! (Any story will do, and if the cap fits, come on out of the wardrobe.) This is a good way to get to know your enemy.....Ooops, this is a friendly inter-club event, there are NO enemies. Okay?! Fine. Quick, while the scrutineers look the other way, how do I change that castor and camber again? No, really I've never actually tried any other engine management chips, this still runs the original. It's the snake oil in the fuel tank that makes the difference.
At the Motorkhana, held adjacent to the Wangaratta Airworld Museum(any offers gratefully received. Apply the Wangaratta City Council.), we did six courses. Different to each other, but in the dust that got thrown up who would've known. Every test got some w/d's. The Reverse Lazy 8 got over 30% of competitors to w/d! For the record the events were Reverse Garage, Corridor, Reverse Lazy 8, Square Slalom, Crossed 4 Point and Plumb Crazy. I'm pleased to say that I didn't manage any w/d's and managed 9th overall. The alleged inherent superiority of the 4 wheel drives in motorkhana only saw the Subaru Liberty turbo come in 8th overall. But dust! Dust!!! When it's our turn, if that's what it takes to make them feel at home, we'll just have to have buckets of it for those foreign devils.
Lunch in the Airworld cafeteria was adequate. More it was the opportunity to watch some lucky devil getting checked out in a Decathlon. Circuit after circuit with the landings just metres from our tables.
And it was off on a tour of the socially deprived areas of Wang in the observation/navigation run. I was lucky enough to have Val Bacon as my navigator (and who'd been telling Val strange stories about what Leon and I do on such runs, either to each other or to our poor unfortunate navigators?). Whoever set that run got a few of the questions wrong and we managed a middle of the field result. I never saw those ducks. I knew where they should've been, but I reckon that that Robson bloke probably chased them down the back before we got there. And that Maloney sheila probably tried to buy up all the fried eggs in Wang that afternoon. (But we know who she was sharing a room with. Don't we? Maybe that's what inspired them to ask for a feather (or two.)
Saturday dinner in the Tennis Club went down well with much animated banter. Some went off to explore the night life in Wang. Who deserted who in the pub remains an unresolved mystery,(Who really cares?) Ray and I surveyed the passing lasses as they came and went at one of the hot spots and came away convinced that it was either jail-bait or their mothers. Maybe we should've gone in deeper.
Sunday was a cool morning and after another filling breakfast there was a dash down the highway to the Winton raceway. And this was where I had to face the magnitude of my task. Due to that little bit of gee whiz hot gas into fresh air type turbo-charging, I'm in the same class as the NSX! And the turbo-charged Subaru Liberty, and the 2litre Prelude. I can't take that many brave pills. There was one series of corners which I didn't work out the right line either into them or out of them. Giving the flag marshall a busy few moments as she tried to work out whether I was going to fall off the road and the yellow would have to go out or not. Then she decided that I always drove like that and stopped worrying. The torque band in the City is good enough to do the whole lap in 3rd gear. I was loosing traction coming out of most corners and only just into the red at the end of the first half of the main straight. There is plenty of room to play with tyre pressures to get some better times, but, hey, the first 3 places were already taken in my class so why test the underwear anymore than necessary. (Remember I still had to take that laundry in the car all the way back to Queensland.)
Sunday night was a brisk walk down the road to the Gateway Motel for a 5 star dinner. We were well fed and again there was too little time and too few opportunities to catch up with everyone. (For those who missed out, Southside Honda donated a nice little collection of odds and ends, and I ran a raffle among the National Meeting attendees. Very well patronised and the lucky winner was Geoff Hawkins from New South Wales who got (among other things) a Honda Car Care Kit for his Datsun.)
New South Wales dominated the sprint and even though the Victorians were tops in the motorkhana, the sprint held the points and New South Wales earned the Perpetual Trophy(and very nice it looks these days.). Mind you, some South Australian in a dumped Prelude did very well in the motorkhana, to show what you can do on a budget, as usual (Kevin Johns was third overall in a 1600 Prelude which had been an abandoned car in Adelaide, sale by tender, $500.00!!)
I took a swag (or two) of stuff from Southsides in a bid to make their stocktaking easier, hoping to sell socks and towels and address books etcetera to our bargain hungry friends. I sold a little, but most people were too busy having fun to spend money.
I could go on naming those friends from National Meets gone by who were there and it was very nice to catch up with and have a little chat with but I couldn't do it justice in the space that the editor has available. Suffice to say, thankyou to the Honda Car Club of Victoria, their sponsors and Southside Honda. I had a good time and met some nice new people too.
