Well, what a day!  The 2008 Bayside round of the Interclub seemed to be a BIG hit with the racers.  From the numbers across both days (about 120), it seems racing is back at Bayside and hopefully everywhere else.
During the day, I witnessed some events which could indicate why racing in and around Brisbane is starting to flourish again.  I suspect that this is why people choose to race rc cars and spend many hours and dollars in this hobby!  (I know it is why I do it!!!)
To start the story off…….

Knowing that it would be a BIG event, and that pit space would be at a premium (under the shade and protection of the lovely pit area), Anthony Atack called me to ask if I could help a mate out and ‘reserve’ him a space as he might be late.  Anyone that knows Anthony, realises that the poor boy has a tough life….with all the countless hours he puts in at work each day and his extra curricular activities.  Combine that with his failing health, waking up early is not a one of his strong points.  So after countless smashings of the snooze button and his dad – Mr Rob “The Cougar” Atack poking and prodding him to get up – he finally turns up to the track dazed and confused.
As a good friend and mate, I did as I was asked and reserved him a pitspace in the shelter – even going to the lengths of providing a tarp to block the morning sun and as it turns out, the annoying showers!  But due to the MASSIVE numbers turning up for the event, I could only squeeze him in between a lot of people (Scotty G, Peter D, Heavy, and JP) which left Grant Mac out in the grassy plains under the shade of Andrew Lyon’s portable shade along with Glen Weir (no relation to Tim Weir – just a useless piece of trivia).  So he was totally surrounded and protected. 
We all know now, that it was the finale for Scotty G and Peter D as far as RC racing in QLD.  So what a better way to send them off (other than race cars with them)………was to enjoy some friendly conversations and banter with everyone in the pits.  In one of my previous postings, I might have mentioned that Anthony might be OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) and also have some ‘lucky’ body clips that he can’t or won’t go racing without!!! (like all sporting greats – superstition can be both good and evil).  Now, this is where the fun starts………
For some strange reason, at the driver’s briefing it started to rain down body clips!  And yet there were no clouds???  Anthony turned and said to me “did you get hit with body clips?” and I replied “NO”.  He then went on about a story on how a twister miles away could pick up stuff and toss it into the next suburb or state.  At this stage, I thought he was still ‘dazed and confused’ and needed to ly down.  But he was quite sure that it was raining body clips!  Next thing he mentioned to me was that he swore he setup his pit area as per usual…….if you don’t know what I am talking about, next chance you get have a look at his neatly prepared and organised pit area (everything has a place!)  But somehow, during the courde of the morning, Anthony’s pit area got messed up – tools not in the right spot, soldering iron on the wrong side, body clips missing and then appearing in weird places…it was just all too much for him!!! He sat there in silence (I thought something was up as he normally you can never shut him up), and I asked him what was wrong?  He looked up and replied…”I’m praying for my pain” Well the gods must have mistaken Anthony’s words and thought he said rain instead of pain!  Within 2 minutes of those words being uttered from Anthony’s mouth, it started to rain pretty heavily!  (whilst Keith was on a TQ run! or so I believe)
After the intevention from the weather gods, Anthony’s pit area returned to normal.  But then some dirty rotten litterbugs (still to be caught) must have thought Anthony’s pit table was a rubbish bin!  As Anthony kept finding rubbish of all sort on his table, in battery boxes, toolcady, inside caps of bottles, in his wheels, and the litterbugs even threw litter at him!!! How dare they!!!  They must have been on bikes as I missed seeing them.  It just wasn’t his day!  One would think it could not get any worse after all that has happened during the morning….
Well, it did get worse for Anthony! Some vandals attacked his pit board!!! and left graffitti all over it!!!  (top and bottom!!!)  I couldn’t belive it!!! I even asked Rob (his dad) to look after and watch his pit space whilst he was racing.  But to no avail.  They got to his pit board in a BIG way!!!  Since then, Anthony has reported it to the police and pictures of the vandalism have been taken (shown below) and the police have asked Anthony not to clean the board and destroy evidence (possible DNA).  So in order to preserve it, I have arranged for it to be laminated!

 
 
 
There is more graffitti on the underside as well!!! How could people do such things? As to disrespecting other people’s property like that!  It’s beyond me!  Now as far as I know, the craziness that was Anthony’s day stopped there.  I don’t think anything else happened to the poor boy at the race meet.  (maybe it did, and he just hasn’t realised yet).
Seriously though, (whilst all this, did actually happen during the day) THIS IS the reason why I like to go racing….the friendships we develop and the ‘tom foolery’ and jokes we get up to.  It doesn’t happen all the time like this and to this extent (on the same person all day long – 8 hours worth), it does happen to a lesser extent on most race weekends. 
I hope this is the reason why we all race rc cars!!!