NSSCC Whiteline Tarmac Rallysprint 2021/2022
Sydney Dragway, Eastern Creek
Round 3 February 17, 2022
The third round of the 2021/2022 Whiteline Tarmac Rallysprint Series was held on Thursday, February 17, 2022. (The second round was cancelled because the track wasn't ready in time.)
You can see the Supplementary Regulations here
The picture shows the planned new course.
As I usually do, I wandered around the service area before the event taking some photos of everyone getting ready
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As you can see by the photos above it had been becoming progressively darker as storm clouds gathered nearby. And just as the familiarisation laps were about to start the rain came down.
And did it rain? It poured down. The course was flooded, and the wind tried to blow the gazebos away from over control points and competitors' service positions. Large plastic barriers defining the course slid across the tarmac and a wheelie bin near where my car was parked was blown right over the car (there was no damage visible on the car, so the bin must have gone over the top without making contact). I was already out getting ready to go to where I would be taking photographs so I ended up with totally soaked clothes, a wet camera and a mobile phone that was behaving badly because of the condensation in my pocket (both camera and phone recovered eventually with no lasting damage).
The view from my car when I sought some shelter.
I retreated to my car to decide what to do next, and the final thing to extinguish all enthusiasm was a notification on my phone that I could have been exposed to a person with COVID the day before (a test the next day was negative, but even the possibility is unnerving). I decided that I didn't want to stand around in mud wearing sopping wet clothes getting rained on so I went home.
There will be another tarmac rallysprint on March 10, so I'll get some action shots there. I hope.
