Clipsal 500 HoldenUK meets HRT!

[HRTHSVHoldenUK]

G,day all reporting from Adelaide Clipsal 500.It was a beautiful sunny morning got to the track at 8:15am and went straight to a huge and one of the many Holden Marquee,s selling all the Holden clothing from all the Holden teams, purchased many of hats and tops and got a great HSV cap,as the time went on a few of the drivers appeared Steven Richards from the LRP camp thats Larry Perkins Racing,spoke to Steve and quized him on his F#$D Bathurst win then the following year in a Holden!He then signed my poster and I was a happy chappy!Next we moved outside to get one of many photos with the Clipsal girls-just had to!! hehe they wanted me in there pics!!!! then the V8 Brutes kicked off and they were great to watch 550bhp unleashed on a street circuit BLOODY GOOD RACING!, that race went onfor quite a few laps and soon we got some breaky! Chips and a Chiko roll for you UK Folk a Chiko roll,It is like a huge spring roll but full of aussie goodness and great for motor racing breakfast not usually eaten before 12pm but if you have spent as much time away from them as I have you will eat them any time of the day Rob I think ya know what I mean! any way back to the report!-Once thrown down the neck of this V8 fan and followed by a Farmers Union Ice Coffee, was ready to start the day for the V8 Supercars biggest event!I rang our contact from within the HRT camp and met Andrew and he threw a couple of pit all access pass over our heads and we proceeded to the HRT garage,spoke to Andrew and asked many questions about the HRT even before we got to the garage,Once we walked down there we were let into the garage and was allowed to walk around Mark Skaife and Todd Kelly,s cars"I WAS IN MY ELEMENT!!!!!!! Even if my Mrs rang me and said I,ve left you and crashed your Commodore I wouldnt have even gave it a second thought!!!!!! Marks car was still being worked on from that nite as he hit the wall and damaged the steering arm, both cars were getting a wheeltracking and I said to them you can do my VT next if ya want mate and the mechanic said I dont think you could afford us!!! the mechanics were lookin pretty tired,i spoke to them and told them about the HoldenUK club and the HSVDriversclub and what we got up too over there they were all very keen on hearing about the meetings I went to look very carefully at the cars and how Bloody cool they are in real life still had to pinch myself!!!.Unforunately both Mark and Todd were not there as they were in a parade lap on the back of one of many old MG convertibles.I brought along some of my collected HoldenUK Business Mags,Vauxhall Monaro brochure from a Vauxhall dealer that i brought back which they asked to keep to show Skaife I said sure!!!! I WOULDNT OF SAID "NO ITS MINE!!!!" and pics from our meetings at the Ace and Northampton,they were all pretty interested as some of the crew couldnt believe that there was so many HSV,s in the UK! I went on and asked many questions on the cars and the setups for each track,took photos in which i will post as soon as i download them from my camera and still couldnt believe that i was actually in the garage,was very luckyto be there,soon time went on and spoke to Andrew on the historyof the the HRT,past drivers and so on and then our time was up as the cars were going to be worked on again ready for the afternoon race 1.I thanked Andrew and wished the HRT all the best for the year and said the UK boys are supportin ya! Afterwards we spent some time in the Pit/Paddock area and checked out all the other teams and took more pics checked out the HSV Dealer Team for ages and just couldnt believe the grunt noise that was comin from the rear end of G.Tanders no 16 car.After our amazment of this great and privaliged area of the track, we left and took our picked out seat from when i was here in 2001 sat on Adelaide straight just after the Wakefield corner.and had the biggest screen right in front of us! PERFECT! sat there for most of the day Aussie racing cars race these are miniture V8 supercars with light weight bodys and 124cc engines in them with body kits from Holden VY,s F#$D AU,s and FJ Holdens they were great to watch! then it was the Adelaide Parade RALLY this was Past Touring car days The ENZED Perkins VK Commodore,Wayne Gardeners HRT VL ,Dick Johnsosns Shell Helix Sierra to name a few! that was very cool,then the next race was the Historic Touring cars these were bloody excellant Torana XU1,s Five of them HQ 4 door Monaro and one 2 door 3 phaseIII Fords and 5 mustangs early 69,s I think? 1 of EH Holden 1800 Datsuns Ford Cortinas, mate this was really great to see!....after that there was numeraous antics from the guys on these stunt bikes throwing wheelies etc CAPA Drift Holden VZ utes doing burnouts to fire up the crowds, then the V8 supercars roared into action with 4 safety car laps and Marcos Ambrose taking the lead for most of the race but Rick Kelly was leading a while M.Ambrose was in for a fuel stop the Fords were pretty unstoppabale with really good racing all day.Mark Skaife was out on the 16th lap with elect trouble the biggest highlight of the day was the battle for 8th Glen Seton in the newly sponsored Dick Johnson Racing Ford and Todd Kelly from HRT for 7 laps there was shunting and pushing.Finally Tod found the inside edge that he needed and squeezed past to the amazement of DickJohnson shown on the big screen! yes Fords won all 3 1st M.Ambrose 2nd R.Ingall and 3rd C.Lowndes all with Stone Brothers Racing built engines grrrrrrrrrrrrr.well the blue oval brigade was happy but i was even happier just to see them V8,s again left the track around 5pm and was very tired but fully fulfilled just looking forward to next year and by the way Adelaide has this track until 2015 great!!!!! Hope to catch you over here one day all the best Wayne Skippy Larsen HoldenUK Register Australian Correspondant.

>>> Edited by HRTHSVHoldenUK on Sunday 20th March 13:58

[raggyman]

Just watched the first race... lots of panel beating going on after that one, that is for sure.

God love broadband... even though it is a beautiful day outside, been sitting down catching up on the NRL and the Clipsal race. If any of the southerners want to watch the race, let me know, sounds like a good excuse for a bbq. Was only the highlights though..not the complete race.

[motomk]

The second race on sunday was even better!

[qldmick]

Hi Wayne
Great report mate. Glad you had a good day,even if the results weren't as you hoped.Did you see Larry Perkins?
Nice bloke,met him at his workshop at Moorabin airfield
Vic. Unfortunately he had some execs visiting so he didn't have time to show me round.The HSV tour was more rewarding.Looked around the workshop with the foreman,there was a Skaife replica promo car and a lot of customer cars in various stages of build. Sadly I missed the great man. Although he is in and out of there frequently,he wasn't expected that day.He was either out testing somewhere,or at a business meeting.
Hope you're posting some pics of the 500.
'bye for now
Mick

[HRTHSVHoldenUK]

Cheers mate yeap and the best time-Yes will be definately posting the pics as soon as i get them of me camera I will post them to paul so he can put them on the forum,No didnt meet LP but got real close to the team as well in the pit/paddock area and some cool pics of the Team truck,hope you are well Mick keep collectin them models have you ot your order in for Brockys A9X yet? all the best Skippy Adelaide

[jagsy]

Clucking bells Skippy

Did you type or copy that report??????????????

Good news - the current series is being shown on Motors TV - so you tight a$$e$, get Sky just for that its worth it


SKIPPY - Where is my vid clip?

PS - it sounds even better now

>> Edited by jagsy on Monday 21st March 19:19

[HRTHSVHoldenUK]

G,day Jags! yeap typed it in MS Word and cut and paste into Forum cos the forum box aint big enough! will have it by the end of week whats your email again? howz goldy goin been showin the boys over here on the laptop ya beast!!!becoming a bit of a Celeb!

[jagsy]

Hahahe

Wayne - you are the joker

Email is [e-mail]

The golden beast is in the body shop at the moment having a few wrinkles rectified.......

DBA discs will be installed soon, so should be in full fettle in the near future.

But the big thing is the LS1 TUNE - oh yes

By the way - any jobs going down under?????

[HRTHSVHoldenUK]

Cool!! No worries- What sort work you after as i have many contacts over here!! They are looking for all sorts here in SA let me know mate hopefully will post pics of my V6 screeamer as well as the Clipsal 500 ;-)

[EH*ROB]

G'Day Wayne,

Great report mate, wish I was there, hopefully next year !

Left it till now to reply as I didn't want to see the results until I saw the Races. I have a FULL LIVE copy of both races on tape, 5hrs. I watched R 1 on Sat night & R2 this morning.

Race 1 was good mate especially when Todd got past that Slow Taxi of Glen Seton, the one with Cabcharge on the front bumper. Todd gave him a few shuves up the jacksy before he got past hay.

Race 2 was even better & what a drive from Skaify to come from the back af the pack up to 3rd (almost 2nd). Todd Kelly did very well to claim 4th after he had 2 drive through penalties, (1 not his falt).

As for the Chiko roll mate, yes I had one when we were over there last January, Had to have one mate, "YOU CAN'T BEAT THE ROLL" !

All the best mate,
Rob.

>> Edited by EH*ROB on Monday 21st March 22:22

[moeman]

G'day, just stumbled on this site and this review,landed back in the UK late this morning after finishing my aussie holiday with the weekend in Adelaide, spent Sat and Sun at the race, great time had plenty of action on and off the track, hundreds of pictures taken, just got to love the way those Holden V8's flame. Will have to watch 5 for the races as I missed most of the action trying to get some good shots!
Got a few HSV goodies at the track and managed to track down a Monaro polo at City Central, couldnt fit the real thing in the carry-on, shame as it worked out about £26K.

[EH*ROB]

G'day moeman, welcome,

Where abouts in the UK do you live mate, nothing on your profile.

If your in the south, come along to the Walkabout Southampton on Easter Mon & meet a few of us (see the posting on this forum). I have a full live copy of both races from Adelaide.

Regards,
Rob.

[hrthsvholdenuk]

G,day Rob glad you got them copys of the Clipsal mate no worries yes cant wait to get to the race next year with ya!when do ya reckon you will be over?anyway i,ll email ya as well take care Skippy SA

[EH*ROB]

G'day Wayne,

No set date yet, as we have a few things to sort out first. Let you know as son as we know.

Send me your address mate,

Regards,
Rob.

[Raggyman]

Might have to borrow those tapes off ya Rob...

PS. have upgraded the Swedish model to the Australian model last night. Very nice upgrade, and think she has a video player, so guess I might just snuggle up in bed and watch the races. So far I don't think that I have a faulty model, but early stages so far. The tape will be a good test..

>> Edited by Raggyman on Thursday 24th March 10:28

[EH*ROB]

[quote]Might have to borrow those tapes off ya Rob...

PS. have upgraded to the Australian model last night. Very nice upgrade, and think she has a video player, so guess I might just snuggle up in bed and watch the races. So far I don't think that I have a faulty model, but early stages so far. The tape will be a good test.. [quote]

Bl**dy reckon mate,

The tape is 5hrs long. Will she wait that long ?

[moeman]

thanks for the offer EH*ROB but I am up north in sunny Blackpool

[EH*ROB]

No Worries Mate,

Hope to see you some time later,

Rob.

[island boy hsv]

I have just seen the repeats of this on Motors TV thanks for the in depth report, this V8 racing is cool about the closest racing I have seen since last year

[EH*ROB]

Beats F1 hands down !