I've just returned from Speedweek 2009 held here in South Australia.
The event is run by the Dry Lakes Racers Australia and is an anual event held (weather permitting) on Lake Gairdner where you can 'see how fast she'll go'. We tried to go last year but unfortunately the weather wasn't kind and rain just prior to the event made the salt to soft to run on.
This was very unfortunate for those who had travelled most of the way - some from interstate -only to find out that the event was off.
This year the weather was kinder, we checked on the Friday - the event was still going ahead, so we committed to travelling up from Adelaide. The journey is about 5/6 hours on normal tarmac roads, followed by two hours on unsealed roads. We travelled up on the Sunday to Kimba, where we had rented a house for three days.
Monday morning we made the journey from Kimba out to the lake, this should have taken 2 hours but took us 3 as we got a little lost. These remote parts of Australia aren't really represented well on maps or GPS navigators and being remote dirt roads, signposts are not found in great numbers.
Arriving at the salt - things didn't really look too good weather wise. There had been a downpour on the Saturday which meant that they weren't letting any more vehicles on the salt. This meant that half of the racers were in the pits 3 or 4 miles out on the salt whilst the other half were in the camping site near the entrance.
We decided to walk out to the pits to take a look around.
The salt lake is a pretty surreal place, and seemed to stretch forever. This is pretty impressive when you consider that the part of the lake that Speedweek is held on is only one small part of Lake Gairdner. The pits were situated about half way down the course at the 4 mile marker, obviously nowhere near the track for safety reasons. The long walk gives you time to soak up the surroundings and take lots of pictures of the breathtaking views.
The variety of machinery being raced at speedweek is huge, there was everything from a massive Detroit Diesel powered prime mover to a postie bike. Exotics such as Ducatis and an E-type, Aussie favourites such as the GT-HO, a Monaro and a Ford XB GT. Vintage bikes like Vincents, Arial, Triumph. There were Bellytankers, Hot-rods, home grown stuff, all powered by anything ranging from 50cc 2-stroke to 7 litre V8's and above.
We chatted to a lot of the owners who were more than happy to spend the time and let you know about thier machine and thier plans, everyone was really friendly. Being a club run event, and also being so remote, those who attend are pretty seriously dedicated - especially the spectators :)
Eventually the track had dried enough to allow some 125Mph license runs to see how the track would hold up. Things were looking good and so faster machines were allowed to go through. Fastest we saw whilst we were there was about 190 Mph from one of the belly tankers.
The weather for the rest of the time we were there was pretty changeable, but this didn't stop the racing. It would have been nice to stay for the rest of the week and see how things progressed. There were plenty of cars that were still going through scrutineering or being setup that we didn't get to see run.
It has to rate as one of the best events I have attended, maybe it's because it's a non-commercial event, maybe it's because of the road trip to get there, maybe its the people, maybe all of the above. There is a real mix of entrants - from the HI-PO modern racing bike riders, to the home brewed - home built entries that look like they wouldn't pass a roadworthy test. The main thing was - everyone was there for the same reason - to go fast or watch others doing it.
Whilst I was there I joined the DLRA - I must admit - I'm completely bitten - I had wanted to enter the Ghia into the Adelaide classic, but at $6K just to enter I can build and enter something in next years Speedweek for the same, if not less, cash.
Watch this space...
More pictures of the event can be seen in the media section under 'events'
