Winton 2019

Arti­cle by Scott Woodbridge

Hel­lo all, I hope all is well.!

I have been cho­sen to do my first run report for the 43rd Win­ton His­toric’s Event so here goes.

Up at 3am bleary eyed and out the door by 3:20 to head to Neville Maw­ers place in Altona from Dan­de­nong arriv­ing at 4am. Nev is wait­ing in his FX with trail­er hitched and he takes off instant­ly with me fol­low­ing won­der­ing what the plan is!  A quick dri­ve to Syd­ney Rd for petrol fill up and we are set for the trip now know­ing what’s going on. Onto the Hume FWY for the 2 hr trip keep­ing the pace below 100 fol­low­ing Nev,  most of the way sit­ting com­fort­ably behind while he set the pace. We stop about 40km short at a rest stop where he tells me he has for­got­ten the tick­ets on the kitchen table! Push­ing on to a 7:15am arrival at Win­ton on Sat­ur­day morn­ing. Nev approach­es the entry explain­ing the tick­et fias­co but we are let in with­out any dra­ma, fol­lowed by me ask­ing if he gave him a clip over the ear for me!

We are set up in last years spot and with­in 5 min­utes he has the rag and pol­ish out set­ting up his FX & trail­er dis­play and myself get­ting stuck into get­ting the bugs off the FJ. Beau­ti­ful weath­er has blessed us for both days and we are off for a cof­fee to get set­tled in. The atmos­phere is elec­tric as the first of the heats starts ear­ly with side­cars and the patron roll in. Bob arrives a lit­tle lat­er in his white FJ ute mak­ing us 3 strong for area with Ray Eaton parked close by. The buzz around the ear­lies keeps us busy all day with many chats and admir­ers chew­ing at our ears and tak­ing pics. Hav­ing not booked any accom­mo­da­tion we park out­side the track off to the side and nev set­tles in to his trail­er whilst I’m cramped in the back seat of my FJ with a sleep­ing and cramped legs till about 3am where I kick the door open and sleep with my legs hang­ing out the door.!

Up at 5am and first in the gate we do it all again for Sun­day with the parade laps to do lat­er mix­ing up the day and adding some more excite­ment but at a slow pace. Richard Fox arrives in his van with Peter Cor­ri­g­an dri­ving his dai­ly and Bob is back in his spot behind us and we all have a quick chat then off to watch some rac­ing. Before long it’s time for parade laps so Nev , Bob and I head out onto the track for 3 laps and it’s over so quick­ly. Back to the dis­play area to drop off some pas­sen­gers in my FJ then it’s time to head back as to make it home before dark.

In all it was a great event as usu­al but with a twist, it’s my longest trip so far in mine and apart from 3rd jump­ing out of gear now and then we make it back to Nevs place and I’m head­ing home with­in 5 min­utes with the dread­ed ear­ly dri­ving bung hip effect on the low­er half. Although way down on num­bers from last years run it was fun had by all who attend­ed over the both days. Cer­tain­ly mem­o­rable for me as I have nev­er done that many miles on a run or walking/talking while at an event but look­ing for­ward to going back for sure!

Mem­bers with Ear­lies.
Ray & Diane Eaton
Richard Fox
Neville Maw­er
Bob & Dot Stone
Scott Wood­bridge

Mem­bers with­out.
Peter Cor­ri­g­an