Meanwhile Leon, John T, John Q, Paul and Campbell tried to remember where'd we last seen the motorkhana poles, and the flags. And how did we do this last time, who did that? And where? Where? Where? But with help from others, including Bert and Marie Ollis, Dave Waller, Roger Beckers and Shirley Hart a picture emerged of a complete event program.
The last couple of years have been interesting with regard to the future of circuit motorsport in south east Queensland. There was a very strong push more than 12 months ago trying to convince us that Lakeside would not be a going concern by now. They even had more than one of our committee members convinced of this and there was a long and hard fight to keep Lakeside as the venue (NSW assured us that their members wanted Lakeside). As you well know, the other track is still not ready and Lakeside is still going strong, with many years ahead of it. Mind you, in our discussions with Lakeside, sometimes it appeared that they didn't know what was going on either. It took several calls to them before we were assured that we would be there. They were, of course, waiting for the proverbial "better offer". (I've seen that girl, she's the one left at the dance after the band has packed up and gone home.)
The accommodation was relatively easy. Only one facility met all of the National Meet preferred criteria. And (apart from the costs of breakfasts.) it did it all well. And I believe that more than one of our guests actually did immerse them selves in one of the pools (in one case, not while they thought anyone was watching!) And, apart from questions from management about footwear in the restaurant, we didn't give them any excitement. This was despite almost daily requests from them in the weeks leading up to our arrival for names, phone numbers, credit card details, hour and minute of anticipated arrival, dates of birth of next of kin, shoe size and so on. I hope that we didn't disappoint them. I thank Belinda and Shelly for their assistance and tolerance. They found room for our drinks in their cold room each night, making it easier for our lunch drinks. And we found room in our stomachs for their cool drinks each night at the bar. Even if Broughy found that he'd obviously been to a different wine school to the bar mistress.
Motorkhana grounds are really easy to find. All that you need is a large bit of flat ground with short grass on it. Look through any window, what do you see? Every suburb has them. Until you need it for a motorkhana! John T and I reconnoitred a few, and then a few more. Reckoning that it must've been something that I said or did, I sent him off alone. Still no luck. Then Dave Waller's mate came good, it felt like this was happening at 4.30pm on the Thursday before Easter, but it wasn't, it was the week before! And suddenly, a venue that had ignored my earlier attempts came up! Even if when one of the event directors saw it for the first time he made some comment akin to "It's too small. You couldn't even do a handbrake turn with a Scamp in here!" And then the flea market lady tried to lock half of us in, and the other half out! But as the sandwiches hadn't arrived yet, urgent and firm action was called for. Well, that stuffed up the caretakers fishing plans for a little while as he discovered that he didn't actually have a key for that gate!
We'd already decided upon using the QUT Carseldine campus carpark 2 as the start for the Observation Run, we'd had a look for the security fellows, but they'd obviously been secure somewhere else, and had had to hope that the gate would be open when we wanted it. We were wrong, but the gate was open on the Sunday morning!
John now had a start, AND finish fObservation Run startor his observation run. There'd been a little mini run for us a couple of weeks before where we'd checked John's methods and sorted out a couple of problem areas (no peering through bedroom windows, going inside high security prisons etcetera) and an unbelievably short and quick run was set up. Well, compared to a couple of the mid-night to dawns, it was really, really, short. But some of those southerners made into a major epic. And still didn't win! Unbelievable!
But all of this needs to be organised and co-ordinated. We chased the New South Wales fellows about a couple of things and Leon entered into the maze of paper work which CAMS runs on, he only scored a couple of W/D's but didn't get a DNF in any of their courses.
And this is where the story really starts. One of the southern clubs, which, for now, will remain nameless, was concerned about how we were going with it all. So we'd get a phone call here, and a phone call there, I'd try and divert the conversation to topics such as the weather, the central heating system, the weather (gosh, it's warm up here), arrangements for next year at Calder Park, the weather (better bring your swimmers.). But they knew that they had us cornered, time for them to act. Yes, an early contingent was despatched to Queensland, on the pretext of a little bit of business and sight seeing. Their representative was smuggled into my place in time for a committee meeting, so we all went for a walk and had pizza and ice cream. Over the next couple of days I keep their spy distracted with visits to Mt Coot-tha, Maleny, Montville, the Wynnum mud flats and scenic spots about Brisbane (and fed her lots of nice porridge, here, have another bowl, it makes your jeans shrink.) Only one of my kitchen cupboards was rearranged, though my sugar management techniques came under scrutiny.
Our overtures to the dealers had had mixed results, some dealers continue to deny our existence. Others welcomed us with open arms, more than we expected. But Northside Honda eagerly recognised the opportunity to seduce our buying dollar and offered to have first choice on the Sprint. Not only that, but they came along too. I thank Clive Peasey, Roger Morrison, Paula Taylor, Richard Brooksby and Robert White, all from their service division for coming along with a lovely fleet of cars (and tent) on Sunday. We showed them under the bonnet of a Coupe 1300 and they showed us how to go obscenely fast in a Prelude. ( I hope that young Robert got off lightly with the girlfriend over that one.)
Their HR-V and auto Prelude were thoroughly enjoyed by a couple of us in assisting keeping the place running smoothly. Gosh, you can get this thing to go up steep hills! And it's a lot easier to open the HR-V back door than the one on my City right now, helps to get those drinks and sandwiches to our volunteer track officials.
In any work place, the best way for new staff members to get to know who's who and become known them selves, is to send them off selling raffle tickets, so we did the same here. Michelle had a box of stuff and raffle tickets thrust at her and was given strict instructions on what the prizes were to be. She quickly countermanded that and came up with ideas of her own (dangerous girl, this one.). Now as a lot of the stuff had been sitting under my beds, hoping for a home where it'd be appreciated for a year or two, the decision was easy, go for it. With that in mind she extorted a bag full of coins from everyone (you want to know what over $100 in twenty cent coins feels like?) Now Michelle knows all of you, and she has a reputation of her own.
Due to the processing speed of silicon still being limited by the rate of data entry and not correctly guessing the ultimate question, we had a little time to spare after dinner before the trophies could be awarded. Just as well we had a Zot full of raffle prizes to divvy out! Sale of the Century It wasn't, and no, I'm not giving up my day job, but that distracted the troops for long enough for Leon and little John to manipulate the results and points so that they made plausible sense. We've since seen where we made our mistake, and next time, the Perpetual Trophy stays here.
And Murray A. got concerned that I wasn't sharing my smiles around evenly, so I have to remember to blow him some more kisses next time, as long as everyone gets even shares.
