A First Timer's experience at the Island

All the NSW cars, more next year
Team Guy as part of the team Grid Guy on the fly

24 August 2015 / Guy Coles, Photos by Guy Coles & SDPics

It’s probably a good idea to listen when someone like Phil Ashton, with decades of racing experience, yells "TOO FAST, TOO FAST!". No it wasn’t a compliment, it was momentary brain fade and the result was a spectacular 130km/h excursion, backwards in the southern loop at Phillip Island on my second ever lap. Ooooops … the extent of the damage I would find out later.

I was SO far off the track, they didn't even bring out the yellow flags. References to my "Tasmanian Holiday" haunted me all weekend. My comment to Phil? "OK we’ve been there and done that, I can cross that one off the list, no need to repeat that." And then the tow truck broke my tow hook ...

I was invited to join the Phillip Island SuperSprinters to race in the Phillip Island 6 Hour Relay in August - an incredible honour given the quality of the drivers in the team. While daunting, the excitement of competing at "the Island" was just too much to pass up and many weeks of planning and excitement ensued.

The threads of planning emails was almost overwhelming as we all threw in our 20c worth, but the amazement that the team crafted the results into was nothing short of incredible. With the precision of a Swiss Army knife, 200+ emails were forged into a plan that allowed us to arrive, setup and become a weapon – feeding a team of nearly 10 people in no time at all.

The experience was over 6 days - 2 days to get to the track, 2 days at the track and 2 days to get home - and this just helped bring the team into greater cohesion. We probably got to see a side of each other that a track day or a club run wouldn't bring out – and this helped appreciate each other as mates and as a team.

Saturday was practice and nominated times had to be chosen. The Regularity format is a brutal mistress if you get it wrong. All in all we chose well and had a good strategy.

Race day, well what can I say ...

To be bouncing off the limiter in 5th and pulling 6th gear, seeing 205km/h on the speedo is an experience I will never forget. To then be overtaken by a 1970 Mach 1 Mustang coming past you like you are parked takes racing to a new level – it sounds like being overtaken by Satan himself. To dive underneath the same car under brakes at 160km/h and pull away for the next few corners still brings back memories. Being consistent was the key and all things considered we did well as a team.

Overall, it was a life experience. One I will take to my grave. A massive tick for the bucket list AND we did well coming in at 11th outright out of 50 teams and 200+ cars. Would I do it again? Try and keep me away! I'm going to keep the peppering on the driver's door as a memento for nothing more than bragging rights and to start a conversation. It reminds me of a gladiator’s battle scars.

Special thanks need to go out to the support team who were nothing short of amazing: Jean Cook, Steve Fisher, Steph Katz, Roger Palfreyman, Sean Byers and Holly Coles (who was on secondment). Other thanks goes to all the behind the scenes people who helped (Cheryl et al) who made the day seamless and without pain in so many ways.

To my fellow PISSers – thank you and "we done good" guys! To the other four teams from MX-5 Club of NSW, the camaraderie was outstanding, nothing was an issue.  "Can I borrow…" was always answered with a "Take it" - nothing was a problem. An amazing experience and a highlight of my motorsport career.