Superlap Coverage
Day 1: Rad Trip
Day 2: Friday Practice
Day 3: Saturday Racing
Day 4: The Long Road Home
So I’m hoping to kick off my blogging career by helping out Downshift with a couple of epic first posts.
When my buddy Foy called me about an upcoming car race, my first thought was “this is just going to be another sprint day at the local track”. But how wrong was I! He proposed something a little more intense: travelling 1000kms south to Sydney to watch the hottest new event in the Australian motorsports calendar – the World Time Attack Challenge, or Superlap as it is known locally. We kicked some ideas around for a bit, organised some press passes, and eventually decided that it’d be a great idea for four of us to pile into a turbo-diesel VW Polo, and drive a thousand clicks through the countryside to see the fastest time attack cars in Australia try to keep up with the Japanese and American teams.
Eventually we found/recruited a few other people from the JDMST forums, and before I knew it, a Mazda 929 was blasting its horn outside my window at 4am on a dark, freezing, lonely Thursday morning. After I freaked out and realised the boys were there to give me a ride, I fell out of bed over the sleeping girlfriend, ran into the shower door, and eventually threw my ass in the car to be able to meet the rest of the guys at Foy’s place for a still-dark 5am sharp departure. Linking up with another three cars, our convoy of ten people made an eclectic bunch – Alex’s Mazda 929 sedan, Andrew’s little hatchback TDI Polo, Jon’s clean white s13 180sx, and Sam’s Mum’s (!) fat Porsche 964 turbo.
Catch me if you can…
Hanging out the sunroof at 100kph in 2°C above freezing is NOT comfortable.
Dawn found us spectacularly just before we hit the city of flowers, Warwick, 160kms from Brisbane. Driving through the countryside in autumn was a BRILLIANT idea. The weather was stunning all day, and really emphasised the beauty of trees in their fall colours; an uncommon sight for those living in subtropical Queensland since we have just two seasons (hot and cold, and they both look the same).
How awesome are the guards on Porsches?!
With a long day of driving behind us, we eventually ended up just outside Sydney, at the start of Putty Road. If you’ve never driven this sweet sweet piece of bitumen, you should mark it down on your list of things to do. For me, riding in the passenger seat of a turbo Porsche was an acceptable substitute. The way its ass stuck to the ground on corners had me preeeeety impressed!
Eventually we ended up in Sydney at the Rooty Hill Novotel, where they were going to fleece us an extra $150 for our room. Nice try buddy, but I knew Ebony hooked me up with a good deal and she wasn’t lying when she promised me the price, so you better check those numbers again.
After checking in, I chose to go with some leftover roadtrip tasty pork with fried rice as a healthy option, but we dropped in to get some McD’s for the other boys, Foy smashed 16 nuggets, no sauce thanks. Wait, what? Saw one of the Japanese drivers, Tarzan Yamada in the lobby on the way home, as well as Speedhunters’ Nissan-loaned R35 GTR. Much jealousy ensued..
The last thing I remember is and throwing my camera gear in a bag before passing out with the others, knowing another 5am start was on the cards for Superlap practice day…
-Matyi