‘Weather’ or not to go racing

Well, we’ve had to take the hard decision to abandon our plans to go north to Palmerston North for the short course championship. I had the Giti Tyres Chev sorted and ready to go, but the uncertainties and costs were just too hard.

Diesel at $4.00 or more is a huge challenge for Joe Public as much as it is for business. It’s something we could probably handle and that track is one of my favourites so we’d have handled the wallet pain, but the tipping point was the uncertainty of the Cook Strait crossing.

With ferries dropping out of commission or being ‘arrested’ unexpectedly, there was no certainty we could have got to Palmie. And having done so, could we get back? Anybody who works for a living can’t just fail to front up on Monday morning, right?

While it’s a First World problem for leisure activities like offroad racing or the convoy of transporters heading south from the V8 Supercars at Taupo, it’s pretty serious for industry and commerce to be choked off by infrequent sailings across Cook Strait.

And then there’s the weather. There’s been a lot of it this past week or so, which means there’s a lot of road damage to repair.

It’s enough to make a bloke wish for the bad old days when it snowed on the way north for the Taupo 1000. And the tow vehicle broke down. And we still managed to get to the race and go racing.

So anyway, the year will go on, racing will happen, and as long as nobody cuts the tow line we’ll get across to the North Island some time in the future.

Meanwhile, over the ditch, Boston Morgan-Horan continues to keep the Aussies honest. He was second across the line in the first day of the opening round of the Aussie national championship, Pooncarie Desert Dash. It’s classic outback red dust race in the wilderness 123 km northeast of Mildura in New South Walers.

I had a bit of a look at Pooncarie on Google Maps. It’s a thriving wee place – a pub, a Post Office, and at least five houses. Strewth. It’s near the Darling River, so there are trees, mostly gums. Population 226 usually.

So anyway, Boston tailed home eventual race winner Dale Martin on the opening day, setting up a classic truck vs buggy battle on the Sunday.

The Pro Buggy pairing of Martin and Mark Degruchy were too strong. They strung together a weekend of near-faultless performances to dominate the event in south-west New South Wales, triumphing in a field that began with 74 entries but succumbed to a higher-than-usual attrition rate. Boston Morgan-Horan and navigator Will Haddock went out with mechanical issues.

So no points for Boston from the first round, and the championship heads for round two – the legendary Finke desert race in June.