Thanks to SAMROA and Mallala Motorsport Park

[Greem]

As some of you might know, following a holiday in Australia I ended up returning to Adelaide during the recent volcanic shenanigans - we're finally going home this coming weekend...

On a whim, last week, I had a search around and found a CAMS sanctioned track an hour up the road from where I'm staying - Mallala Motorsport Park, http://www.mallala.com/ - which had a Sporting Car Club of South Australia meeting on over the weekend of 1/2 May.

Because I was cheesed off at missing the first meeting of my season over at Rockingham, I fired off a speculative email to the competitions committee of the South Australian Motor Racing Officials Association to see if I could (a) turn up on Sunday, (b) get on a post, (c) borrow some overalls/gloves and (d) get a lift up there and back - 60km or so.

A bit too much to ask, I thought. But how wrong I was!

I got a call on Saturday afternoon from Andrew Leitch, their Chief Flag for the meeting. He went way over and above what I could have expected by arranging for me to be collected by another marshal (who lives near where I'm staying) on the Sunday morning, and explaining that regardless of experience (I'm a trainee) and kit (which is all at home, PRC and MSA cards included) that I'd get out on a post and would be provided with everything I needed.

The assembled crew on the Sunday made me extremely welcome, with the predictable good-natured ribbing very much in evidence then explained a few differences between "us" and "them" (mainly flag and signal technicalities), kitted me out with a pair of overalls, bottle of water and some gloves and packed us all off to post.

I was lucky to be paired with two experienced marshals with whom I alternated blue & yellow flags for most of the meeting. We had 17 races; 18 were scheduled but a 70's Holden dropped oil over most of the circuit after which almost the whole circuit needed cement brushing in! The difference in classes was pretty large, with races for FVee 1200 & 1600 (which ended up as a combined field of 29 which was *very* entertaining), FFord 1600, Historic Sports Cars (seeing a 1970s Porsche 911 against a monster Holden V8 was pretty impressive if a little unfair!), Modified Saloons, Holden HQs (awesome, very on the limit) and one class for Japanese modified cars (some of which had crazy engines).

I learnt heaps - being the first meeting I've properly flagged - so I only hope I remember some of it!

Just before lunch (which was provided, and delicious) I was invited to make my way to the course car for the "track open" lap. Unfortunately the Clipsal 500 course car (A Commodore SSV) was written off by a truck the week before while parked so I had to make do with a couple of banzai laps in a Hyundai Tiburon GT V6 instead. Pretty impressive driving by Steve, the course car driver. After lunch I got to go round again, this time a lot quicker in the same car, for the "track closed" lap - I managed to film these laps so I'll see if the video is up to snuff and post it somewhere!

The afternoon's racing was generally better then the morning - a lot cleaner, very close and hard but fair. No oil went down so my newly acquired brushing skills weren't needed but we had a few wide runners on my corner which required yellows, and one very broken and slow car for which I had to throw a white for the first time in my short marshalling career. We also had two FF1600s deciding to have a wheel locking incident which threw one of the several feet in the air, but both cars were undamaged.

At the end of the meeting I was thanked by race control over the radio (their "international visitor"!) and invited to join everyone for beer'n'bbq, but my lift had to leave early. By that point I'd been invited by about a half dozen people to come back for next year's Clipsal 500... wonder if I can persuade the other half?
The crew made sure I grabbed a beer before leaving though!

All in all, I'm very glad I contacted SAMROA and was overwhelmed with their hospitality and enthusiastic welcome. Special thanks go to Andrew (for arranging everything), Dainis (for getting me there and back) and Karl (who along with Dainis was very patient with me and taught me lots), but everyone I spoke to made me feel extremely welcome.

Next time I'm back in Adelaide, I 'll make a point of getting out to Mallala again (unless I'm here for the Clipsal...)!

[Greem]

To cap it all, I've also had an email from their committee chairman to say that I should pass on their details just in case anyone else is venturing towards South Australia, so here they are:

http://www.samroa.org.au

They're a friendly bunch

[Woolley]

Glad you had a good time. I had a similar experience of QMROA (Queensland) a few years back and I know others have had a good welcome on trips down under. Must do it again sometime.

It goes without saying that if any of our Antipodean colleagues are visiting our shores we will endeavour to make your trips equally rewarding.

[PVDA]

We've had a few pop up on 10/10ths but most pick a quiet time of the year to make the trip down here.

[GT VIRUS]

Glad you had a good time greem! I'm sure samroa would be glad to have many more of you guys join us! Hopefully next time you can join us for a beer!