It has been a big week but here we are at the final day of the Clipsal 500 Race Meeting.

Another early start, even getting Jenny out of bed early to bring the car home so that I didn’t have to drive home at the end following the Thankyou BBQ.

The weather for today started out with relatively clear skies with occasional cloud and mid 20’s.

The first race for the day was Aussie Racing Cars and they certainly put on a show with a rollover in the first lap and the car shedding its shell in the process.

After a couple more incidents it was time for the Formula 3 and another couple of racing incidents leading to race cars circulating on the back of tow trucks.

The Touring Car Masters were relatively well behaved compared to the previous races, although we did one have a engine failure leaving a trail of oil along Pit Straight before catching fire on the start line, ending up in the gravel of the chicane.

Next up were the GT Championship where we only had 1 car having a off in the chicane.

A crowd favourite was the Qualifying for the V8 Supercars when Greg Murphy drove hard up the rear of a slow moving Jonathon Webb that was heading back to Pits.

The V8 Utes had their final race then it was time for the circus leading up to Race 2 of the Clipsal 500. The drivers Harley parade seemed to go for ever – there must have been at least 200 bikes.

V8 Drivers photo completed and one more race of the Carrera Cup before the main event and all were well behaved.

A bit more circus on the grid and then it was time for Race 2 of the Clipsal 500.

For the first time for a long time, we managed to get through a race without a safety car. Unfortunately it was a Ford win though ….

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It was hard work getting out of bed this morning (I thought there was only one 5 o’clock in the day and it is in the afternoon). By Day 3 it is almost like Groundhog Day with leaving the track in the dark and arriving in the dark as well.

The weather today was probably perfect with periods of cloud.

Today was a full program with races for the V8 Utes, Dunlop V8 Development Series, Formula 3, Carrera Cup, Aussie Racing Cars, GT Championship and of course, Race 1 of the V8 Supercars. There was even some Top Fuel Dragsters and Funny Cars putting on a show.

The notorious Turn 8 claimed a few more scalps during the V8 Supercars with one crash taking out 3 cars.

The V8 Supercar race was a nail biter with the last lap deciding the winner with Jamie Whincup passing Will Davison just a few corners before the finish line. A Holden over a Ford win certainly brought most of the pit straight grandstand to their feet cheering.

Although we didnt have any fires today, there certainly were plenty of recoveries.

Another late night with a twilight race for the GT Championship with some light rainfall to make it interesting. Will be looking forward to as much shut eye as possible tonight.

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When we left the track last night, there was a couple of severe weather warnings. South Australia had a tropical feed coming from the north west which was east of Adelaide and there was a cold feed coming from the south east which was west of Adelaide. We were right in the middle of the 2 strong systems.

We were lucky to have missed out on any heavy rains but did get some hammering with strong winds. I had one of the roads coming in blocked by a downed tree. Seemingly there was some repairs to be made around the circuit as well.

Even though the 2 weather systems persisted, they were still missing Adelaide and we had periods of sunshine today.

Today we had an extra 10 firefighters which took the pressure off a little trackside, giving a total of 110 firefighters for fire and rescue.

Today we saw the V8 Supercars out on track (these are our version of Nascars for our North American friends). After a couple of practice sessions it was straight into qualifying.

Most of the cars behaved themselves but some couldn’t help themselves and hit the walls anyway. One of the recoveries didn’t take long to get onto the tow truck but took quite a while to get off as the gear box or brakes locked on.

Well it was quiet until the end of the day when the V8 Utes, V8 Development Series and Carrera Cup came out, then all hell broke loose with carnage all over the track. This kept us busy until the end of the day and the sunset finish. The end of a long day.

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Well the 2012 Clipsal 500 was upon us and we thought that it was going to be washed away. All day yesterday being the last day of summer, it rained constantly with temperatures in the low 20’s. Apart from doing the setup and pulling out bogged trucks, it was all ready to go.

Move forward 12 hours and it was a different day. The rain had stopped but was still overcast and the ground was starting to dry up.

An early start and briefing for the 100 fire marshals, many of which we had not seen since last years race meeting. Even though we were down a little in numbers, we still had enough to maintain a safe presence on the track.

The obligatory hit of caffeine before heading up to Race Control and it was time to bring on the cars.

It was a relatively quiet day on the track with only 24 recoveries and 1 fire.

After a senior officials briefing at the end of the day, I managed to make it home before dark but only just (lucky we still have daylight saving).

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