We’re back from Sydney, and started back at work yesterday - blech.

Sydney was good fun. As you may remember, for M’s birthday I got him 5 laps in a V8 at Eastern Creek International Raceway, which was the reason for the trip. M enjoyed his V8 driving, although he said he didn’t get as much out of it as he might have because he was worried about crashing the car. I’m glad he was cautious - I had awful images of videoing him crashing into a wall or something, but of course he was fine. Here are a few photos:

We caught the train from the CBD, then a bus that allegedly went near the track, but we had to walk for what felt like bloody ever from where we got off the bus to where the entrance was. We walked 5 minutes down the road and found the Gate 1 entrance, and thought that that was pretty close, but it said on the voucher to go to Gate 7, which was waaaaaay around the outside of the track. Once we got in we had to walk all the way down to the pits, and saw that Gate 1 was right near where it was being held, so I don’t know why they couldn’t have let us in there.

During the walk we were repeatedly molested by flies, and several of them were hitching a ride on us. Little bastards. Even though it wasn’t a hot day, we were boiling and buggered by the time we finally got to the gate.

Some of the cars at the start/finish line.

M waiting for his car. He looked so cute in his helmet!

I didn’t get any photos of him getting in the car or being buckled up because I was videoing it. It was hard to alternate between the digital camera and the video camera. I was also hoping to get video of him coming into the pits at the end and getting out of the car but I totally missed him. I had no idea which car was his as he came past, so I just videoed all of them and will try to pick him out when I watch it. He also got an in-car video of him driving, which was good. He also had his photo taken with one of the cars before the driving, which was made into a laminated certificate.

Before the race, he and the other drivers had a briefing session where they went through the track and told them which gears to use on which corners and how soon to brake etc, then they got their car with the instructor and did the laps. I thought that he was going to get some in-car training before doing his laps, but nope - you get in the car, do your 5 laps and that’s it, so I thought that was a bit disappointing.

Afterwards, we decided against walking back to the train station and got a taxi instead. We had to wait an hour for it because the first person they sent picked someone else up instead (nice one), but I didn’t mind too much because my legs were still feeling pretty weary, so I was glad to be able to sit down for a while.

Overall, I think he enjoyed it. At the time I bought the voucher, the company didn’t offer anything in SA, but they do now so if he wants another go, we don’t have to travel quite as far. It was a good excuse for a holiday though.

There are more photos I took while we were in Sydney in the gallery.