Friday 20th June.
Today is practice day for the V8's at the Hidden Valley circuit. As we have three day passes to attend I decided to go alone today and Gail was happy to stay and catch up with cooking, knitting etc. The Northern Territory government provide free transport to the event from several locations around Darwin. The Casuarina shopping square and bus interchange is only a short drive from where we are staying at Lee Point so I drove the car to the shopping centre and parked it there for the day. The buses leave for the circuit every hour today then half hourly tomorrow and Sunday.
The 9:30am bus arrived at the Hidden Valley circuit after a 35 minute run.
As this is the first time I have been to this circuit I firstly walked around most of the track to determine the best vantage points. A practice session for the V8 Utes was in progress when I arrived so I had the perfect opportunity to select the most desirable spectator view point.
The amount of shade cloth and permanent shade covered areas is quite amazing but not surprising considering the weather at this time of the year. The sky was absolutely cloudless with temperatures climbing to 32 degrees by late afternoon.
Aside from the V8's there were also Formula 3 open wheelers, Production Masters which includes such vehicles as Mustangs, Camoros, Toranas, Mazda rotaries, Valiants and Falcon GTs.
As today is purely for practice sessions to enable teams and drivers to get their cars ready there is not a great deal of competition or excitement except when there is a smash or similar.
The merchandise operators were in full swing as well as a number of other attractions.
Ample buses were available for the return trip back to Casuarina. The day was a success as I was able to check everything out in preparation for Gail and I tomorrow and Sunday.
No comments:
Post a Comment