Sat, 28th Mar, 2015 Malcolm & Kerry’s farm, Westbury (V8 Supercars at Symmons Plains)

Up at 7am to get ready to head off to Symmons Plains. 7 degrees again so on went a few layers of clothing, gloves and coat. Beautiful clear sky so it looks like it will be a good day.

Lots of cars already there. Found a park and went to buy our tickets. We were served by the lady who was in charge of the Ticketec scanners that we used at Bathurst. Said hello and that we will be at Bathurst again. Got our ‘Seniors’ discount of $20 so we are happy with that.

Dropped our chairs off on the straight down to the hairpin then went for a walk. The end of the straight up to the hairpin is where you can pay extra to park your car closer to the track. We watched some of the other cars do their qualifying. Steve said the hairpin corner was sharper and a lot more of a drop than it looks on TV. About a 10 foot drop from one side of the track to the other. Good view from there and you can see nearly all the rest of the track except Turn 1 and 2 but there is a big screen TV here. Got our chairs and set up beside the fence right at the hairpin corner. Texted the boys and Lou, Steve & Ian to rub it in that we were at the track.

The V8s came out for another practice.

Didn’t quite get me in the selfie.

Steve putting on his sunscreen as the sun burns badly even though we are freezing. We are under a speaker so we can hear everything too.

Touring Car Masters.

GT Sports.

Steve thought Wendy had a little Datsun sedan like this one.

Oops one into the kitty litter.

Qualifying for V8’s first race saw Shane Van Gisbergen run into the back of Ash Walsh – Giz got a 2 place starting grid penalty for that.

Craig Lowndes got pole for the first race.

Matt Hall entertained us with a fantastic aerial acrobatics in his plane. Pete Angus rang for a chat.

Next Qualifying session and Lowndes gets pole again.

Aussie Race cars in their first race.

The lady’s car that I sat in at Homebush a couple of years again.

One of the GT Sports cars pulled off the road with a problem but then the heat from his car caused a grass fire.

Plenty of room in the ‘park &view’ section.

Zoomed down to the ‘hill’ – will have a look from there tomorrow. There is a “True Colours” track walk tomorrow so we will check that end of the track out then.

Also a Mustang display in the middle of the track too.

The first V8 race gets ready to start – we watch it on the big screen.

All into the hairpin and James Courtney turns Will Davison around. James didn't get a penalty and Will was not happy.

Then Lee Holdsworth turns Todd Kelly around but he got going again. They gave Lee a drive through for that though.

Craig wins then Mark Winterbottom then James Courtney.

Touring Car Masters out again – oops one got stuck.

Steve was entertained by the antics of the tow truck crew trying to get the Touring Car Master car off the hairpin. They were having troubles trying to get it onto the track. The truck nearly got bogged in the kitty litter then the car driver got the car started and drove off!! Race was red flagged so the crews could go out and get rid of the dropped oil etc.

Next V8 race is on – took a video of a lap of the track.

Poor Heimgartner finds the kitty litter.

Tow truck gets him out and off he goes again. 

The hairpin was the best spot to sit as that was where all the action happened. Track temp 27 degrees, air temp 19 degrees but 47 degrees in their race cars’ cabins.

Craig lead and won the race again with Jamie Whincup then James Courtney in 2^nd & 3^rd. Texted the boys with the updates – they aren’t happy that you can only watch it on Foxtel or highlights later tonight on One.

The wind has come up and it is getting cold as we head back to the car. The long line of cars to get out onto the highway.  We turned off and went through Longford to get out of the traffic. Back to the van for dinner. Beautiful evening though it is getting darker earlier now.

A replay of the V8s was on One so watched it all again. Nearly saw us on TV!!!