Brett and I started the day with a walk down to the merchandising area. But first we had some distractions.

Distractions at a race meeting - who would have thought?

The first distraction was race cars. We walked down to the gate near Rydges Hotel. At the top of the mound you are at Murrays Corner and due to the big screen and the tower, you can find out a little of what is going on.

I finally got to see some Formula Fords race. None of my companions were at all interested in watching these little buzzboxes on the track but to me, racing is racing. It is all good.

It was killing me watching the track marshalls on point, I wished I was there with them. I make a really bad spectator and would like to have some responsibility and be part of what enables the meeting to happen. I feel some contact with CAMS is needed very soon. I used to do flag marshalling ten or so years ago - I would really like to take it up again.

We turned towards the National Motor Racing Museum. The next distraction - Toranas. Did I tell you my first car was a Torana? OK it wasn't a GTR or an XU-1 like the ones on display outside the museum, but close enough. Mine was probably faster than a lot of the cars on display.

Mine was a four-door and it was purple. The ultimate in anti-theft devices at the time. My friends who owned Xu-1s back then all lost them to car thieves. Mine was protected by the purple paint and the four doors. All I ever got was what my husband called a "twenty cent GT stripe". Probably from a Ford fan. Work it out.

Check out the photos (when I upload them - I will try to do that as soon as I can, I am really sorry about the delay, but the bandwidth at the track was being used by everyone and sorting and uploading photos was difficult for 2 reasons: The first is that I didn't have time, and the second was that the internet was flaky).

The merchandising area also had many cars on display - photos to follow!

Brett also bought himself a T-shirt - a 1977 Ford Victory commemoration shirt. Ah, Brett. 1977 was a bit of a theme for him over the weekend.

We climbed up onto the mound on the pit straight and watched some Porches, then the Touring Car Masters race. It was good at Hell Corner for photos. Brett was really happy with a Ford 1 - 2 victory, and a really good showing from a Charger.

Back to the pits for a decent cup of coffee and more posters. Also took some snaps of drivers as there was another practice session on.

I even took a couple of snaps of some promotions girls. Only because they were for the Bottle-O car which was in retro livery - and so were the girls.

My husband calls the promotions girls "Snog, Marry, Avoid" girls. Mostly due I think to the fake tans. He chooses to avoid. I choose to laugh. I hope you don't get the reference - I hate that show, it seems to be so demeaning. But as a wife - I kind of like it that my husband avoids those girls. None of the other men there seemed to be avoiding them. I love you Brett.

Did I tell you I love car racing - for the car racing? That's what I love about it. The commercial side of it doesn't really interest me.

We went up to the Touring Car Masters pits again - to find out what happened to the 6-pack Charger as it hadn't finished the race. When we got there it was having an oil change done. The Charger in the garage next to it had hit the wall and the body had been badly damaged.

While we were looking at MY favourite Charger - the one which had come fourth, we looked up and saw a guy in Ford gear who was also checking out the Charger. He looked really familiar. Brett said to him "What are YOU doing looking at a Charger?". He told us that his first car had been a Valiant. It was Neil Thompson from the TV show "Restoring Dreams"and Grand Tourer Restorations. Restoring Dreams is a must watch in our house.

Brett and I chatted to him for a while but I was a bit too excited to follow the conversation. I mean - that guy is on TV! He seemed to be a really nice guy - but like I said I wasn't following the conversation very well. He asked us where we were from and if his show is still on TV there. We are from Brisbane and yes it is.

Back to the van for lunch again. Can I just say - the quality of food available from our own fridge was way better than that available for purchase at the track? I think there is a bit of a niche in the market there for anyone interested in providing quality food to the masses. I mean - the range wasn't too bad, but it just didn't interest me. We were also saving a stack of money by eating what we considered expensive food that was bought outside the track.

While Brett was making lunch, I got to watch the Roulettes from the comfort of our own little setup.

We wandered back up to our "private" viewing area while the entertainment was still on. But the entertainment just drove by and didn't entertain us at all.

Next was a Porsche race, then the old cars were doing laps. So excited to see these historic vehicles turning a wheel. After that another Dunlop series race and then utes again. It was really good watching the utes entering the Chase. There is a big bump in the track there and the back ends bounced so hard they seemed to almost lift off the track.

Brett and I wanted to watch the Top Ten Shootout from a better location so we walked down to Murrays Corner. There was plenty of standing room and we had a couple of beers during the session. We got to see another Touring Car Masters race before the shootout began. Really enjoyed it down there. We got to sing Happy Birthday to some girl we had never seen before - the crowd around us was being egged on by some guy that I hope knew her.

The FA-18 that we hadn't seen since that day out on the highway suddenly (loudly) appeared over our heads. Inverted.

He rolled up the right way and did his full thing. If you have never seen this - do yourself a favour and get to an event with a warplane for entertainment. There is nothing like it.

Once he finished his routine he flew straight up and disappeared into the clouds.

The shootout began as the clouds really rolled in. It was touch and go if it could be completed before the rain. It actually did start raining at one point but the rain was too light to really affect the track. Brett was especially pleased when a Ford took pole position.

I took a heap of blurry photos. What can I say? These cars are fast!

Back home before the rain got too bad. It was actually quieter tonight in the motorhome park. Daylight saving was coming in overnight which meant an hour less sleep. It was also an early start tomorrow for many. I also found out later that our noisy neighbours had been roused on by a fellow camper for making so much noise. Perhaps the angry lady frightened them, they were certainly not partying on Saturday night the way they had on Friday.