The Final Day for the Clipsal 500 is normally a laid back sort of day compared to the other three. There a couple of races in the morning to fill in the time til the pomp and ceremony of the Driver’s Parade, a V8 Ute Race then the final 250 kms of the Clipsal 500 to finish off the day.

This morning wasn’t all that different to other final days except that there was a hint of rain on the way. Not a little bit of rain but tropical rain from the north. After yesterday’s perfect conditions, it was going to make today’s racing interesting.

The rain kept holding off but we had an eye on the radar. We got through the first races with no issues, then a Driver’s Parade with 200 Harley Davidson’s then the Driver Photo.

It was then time for the V8 Ute Race and the heavens opened up. Perfect timing with the utes just on the grid. This was going to be fun as they have little control in the dry.

The utes behaved themselves until the last lap then they let loose. I am not sure how many were in the field at the start of the race but I had 11 broken utes to organise recoveries with only 9 tow trucks (we thought that would be enough) and the big race to come.

We cleaned up th track with time to spare and it was time for Race 2 of the Clipsal 500. The track was still damp and the cars were running wet tyres. After around 25 laps, the track started to dry and crews starting to change to slick tyres and it wasn’t long before we had more rain and then cars starting hitting concrete barriers. We had one recovery out of that downpour with the others limping back to Pits.

Wet tyres were put back on and of course the track started to dry again. Sicks started to go back on which resulted in the rain coming down which brought out another Safety Car for another recovery. The race did finally finish but I am unsure of what tyres were on at the time.

It was a matter of seconds after the last car crossed the Finish Line before the track invasion began. How no one was cleaned up, I am not sure.

Our final task in Race Control was to fair well the Chief Medical Officer, Roger Capps, who was retiring after this year. It was then on to the Thankyou BBQ, not before having a couple of beverages at the A Team in the rain.

Another good year is complete …..

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You never know what the day will bring. It was another start in the dark but we finished with sunlight.

First thing up, I had another 10 fire marshals to distribute around the track (nearly at our maximum number). After sorting out some that went to the wrong spots, we were ready for the day.

It was a great day for the racing, it was warm and dry and the crowd numbers were large (2nd biggest Saturday Crowd).

Racing started with the Aussie Racing Cars, V8 Utes then into V8 Supercar qualifying. A quiet morning with a couple of recoveries.

Even the Fujitsu V8 Supercars and Touring Car Masters behaved themselves in their races.

How quick things change. Race 1 for the V8 Supercars was going well until a few of them decided to become intimate with the concrete barriers.

A few Safety Cars while we recovered the wrecks and it became a 5 lap sprint to the finish.

The last race of the day was the Formula Fords. They had a definite affinity for concrete. We had 11 recoveries in 3 laps which took out about half the field and we ended up using every tow truck to pick them up.

What started out a quiet morning, certainly ended in a bang.

There is talk of rain for Day 4 so it will be interesting to see what happens then ….

There is one constant with the Clipsal 500 – we get to the track in the dark and we leave the track in the dark with a small window in between to grab a few hours shut eye.

Today was no different. In fact, we had another twilight race which ran later than last night. It was a one hour Australian GT Championship Race but after half an hour we weren’t sure whether the race would last that long.

In the first half hour about half of the field was out of the race, leaving 13 cars to compete into the dark and the flaming pyrotechnics at the completion of the race.

Being the second day, I had another 20 fire fighters at my disposal which made the “chess game” of positioning fire marshals a lot easier.

Today looked like it was going to be a quiet day for recoveries and it was but we still got a lot of business from the Formula Ford and Aussie Racing Cars.

Bring on Day 3 …..

The first day of the 2011 Clipsal 500 had arrived. Preparations have gone well.

Numbers are down slightly on previous years with the Fire Marshals and there is the usual changes of days that can be worked and not worked by them.

We still had enough to do the job and with some last minute massaging of the dispersals, it was time to hit print.

An early morning start at the Sign On tent and of course, more massaging of the dispersal with a few more non starters for the day.

Headed up to Race Control with the usual heart starter Cappuccino to take on the onslaught of equipment issues that need to be dealt with on the first morning.

It was then time to get some cars circulating on the track.

The morning started out well with a few recoveries, mainly for breakdowns. No fires or crashes of note. That was until the Aussie Racing Cars had their first race.

This was followed with some more flurry in the V8 Utes, The day finished with the Australian GT Championship which was supposed to be a twilight event but with the cloud cover ended up being a night finish.

Total recoveries for the day was 33 – a little down on previous years which is probably a good thing.

The final duty for the day was the Seniors Briefing (with the obligatory beverage), then home to get ready for Day 2.