I went to watch this race in 2020 as a mate was competing, figured it was a good excuse to finally get to explore Kalgoorlie. I managed to get out and about a bit on that trip, and now I am coming back to this race, as an official! Me and Mallow will be rolling around the tracks with purpose and skill! Approx 2200kms round trip over 6 days.
For the first time in a long time, I drove to Kalgoorlie solo, but had a shot gun rider for the event. I had invited Calvin to be the #2 in my car for the weekend as I needed a second person. He was working till the Wednesday night and I would steal his weeks leave and he would be back to work a little early after we had been tourists.
I was a course car – Course Car 6 for the weekend and was planning to arrive on the Thursday 20th, but got the offer of a tiny convoy of 2 cars leaving on the Wednesday arriving that night. I was able to take the few hours off and planned it for Wed leaving. I didn’t tell Calvin this and planned on surprising him.
Well that wasn’t quite going to plan as I was texting him to find out where he was staying, then he stopped replying. I was about half hr away from Kalgoorlie and had no idea where this man was! haha boy did I think I’d made a mistake. He finally called me back, it was a total surprise and I picked his drunk ass up and we headed to camp.
Rolling into camp was great, it wasn’t fully packed out yet so we had plenty of space to set up. Driving up with Max behind had been so easy, little slow on the hills but she was good! Dad and I had done some great mods to the trailer in the lead up, new electrics, new legs, replacement of the toolbox, repaint of all the a frame, new spare tyre mount. All made for a much smoother ride.
Once we found our spot, we got moving on setting up – it was about half 9 or 10 by the time we got to camp. Being just a tent she’s so simple. Cal got the legs down, I unzipped the tent (she needs a new zipper) and flipped it out, few guy ropes down and she was set! Calvin had never slept in a roof top tent so this was a first for him, how exciting! He couldn’t believe how bloody roomy it was! haha Quick chat to those around us and off to bed. Was a great first night, even if he was a little tipsy still, needless to say he slept better than the swag I believe as it had much more room, sideways and to sit up and we were off the ground.
Think we both slept well that night! Thursday was a bit unknown so once we were up we went to chat to our man in charge – Marc Sharman. Turns out we weren’t needed till the lunch get together and then the briefing that afternoon. So we went off exploring. Went into town for some supplies then had so much time to kill – Cal took me out to show me where he worked. It was actually pretty cool to see where he worked, how far he travel from when they land, and its quite a drive and a boring one too haha Went past a couple of other places he used to work at, and the shitty little pub to avoid and I learnt alot!
After the long drive to the middle of nowhere, we headed back into town to meet up with the rest of the course car drivers and checkpoint people at the Kalgoorlie Hotel – another tick off my list of Kalgoorlie pubs visited. Our fearless leader was late – but we all found each other and got to chatting! Everyone got along and it was a bit of a mini ADSU reunion. Quite a few of us recruits were sourced from Avon which is wicked as it made it easier to get to know everyone!
Once lunch was done we had a little time to kill so we window shopped at BCF haha before we had to be out at the Race track for the ‘street party’ which is kind of like a show n shine of all the cars and bikes competing on the weekend. It was a chance to see them all up close and see what kind of set up they all have. I got to see my clients vehicle and have a chat to him about the weekend. We picked up our official shirts and caps and wandered around a bit and headed home. Jeez those trucks are impressive. Alot of money in one place!
I always sleep so good when camping, and the tent just keeps you up off the ground, and with all the changes we made it feels alot more stable.
Friday morning, we were up-ish with the light but definitely not out of bed! haha We checked in with Marc once we were up and we were not required until the evening, so we headed out to find out our first checkpoint for Saturday with Gary and Nat and then a spin around Lake Perkolili before I needed fuel so they went back to camp and we went back into town for a few things we forgot, and came back to camp.
On the way back to camp we kinda got a call from Gary but my phone didn’t work so well. So Cal tried calling him back – we were advised ALL of our gear was back at site – VHF radio, stickers, antenna, red helicopter dot, all ready to be installed. So we hooked it all up, I put on all the stickers and tried to work out where would would install a giant red magnetic dot…normally it would be on the bonnet but I have my solar panel on there, not much else on my car is magnetic enough to be able to see it! So we had to double cable tie this 300mm ish magnetic dot to my roof racks! ha I wish I got footage of what it would look like! I had a flashy amber light, a magnetic antenna and a big red dot!
I am glad Cal knew what he was doing with all the wiring, I wouldn’t have had a clue! After hooking it all up we went down to the start of the tracks to see what was going on! Note: I have an optus mobile phone so very little cover! Gary tried to call me again to tell me they needed more helpers, so we headed over to the comms tent to see where we were needed. Next minute we were wearing fluro vests and headed to the start line of the prologue.
We took over from another 2 vollys at the start, and got to stand in front of all of the cars, to stop them from going at the wrong time, and tell them “1 minute to go” and they they had to wait for the lights – 1 flashing amber, then solid amber, then solid red and when they all go off its GO!
It was actually alot of fun! Chasing the shade, and water and trying not to be too friendly with the flies, who mind you were SO friendly with us. It kept reminding me of a skit Carl Barron does where he says something along the lines of ” only in Australia do we tell flies to F*#K off and expect them to listen”, Love it!
Friday night was the top 10 shoot out, top 10 vehicles placed from all classes. Cal wentfor a hoon with Marc and scared the shit out of himself! Reckons he was holding on tight as Marc went round the shoot out track. Was pretty cool to watch, and then we got to be the chase car for the top 10 shoot out! One of 2 but we were able to head out onto the track, amber light flashing, high beam on and shutting down the lighting towers, biiig job!! Pretty sure I cooked chicken kebabs for dinner…. just kebabs haha
Cal found out a childhood friend he hadn’t seen since he was a kid in SA was competing this weekend, and we saw him as he was getting ready to race. So we wandered over to their camp once we had finished the day. Met the family and it was fun! It was getting late and a bit cold so we called it and went home.
We set ourselves an alarm of 5:45am Saturday morning, giving us 15 minutes to wake and dress and then get to our checkpoint by 6:30am for radio check. Calvin drove for day 2 as I drove day 1, share the driving!
We got out to our checkpoint early, no speeding involved, I promise, and met our checkpoint person for the first lap of the race. We aired down, and grabbed brekky and coffee whilst the flies weren’t yet too friendly. Saturday there was 2 bike races and 1 car race and Sunday was 2 car races and 1 bike race. We started at checkpoint 10 and then once the lap has finished we sweep from 10 to the start line.
We were supposed to wait at the start line until the next lap had passed but we were kind of in the wrong spot, and got bounced out by another course car, so we sat there for 2 laps and headed from the start line to checkpoint 2 for the last lap. Then it was a bit of a mission to get back to the start line, semi quickly as it had been a LONG day! We did manage to sneak a little run back to camp in there whilst we were killing time. We went over to Kyles camp again tonight to see how they went for the day, not good apparently, battery issues 😦 they didn’t get far into the track. Was funny listening to his mum and dad, the accents, the sayings, it was fun!
Sunday morning we set the alarm for the same time, but apparently everyone was up before us, and we were getting call outs of ‘are you guys up yet’ well before our alarm!! I mean the sun was up, it was starting to warm up but it was still too early! We got out of bed just at the right time, with time to kill and our first checkpoint of the day was 2 with Sheree and Aaron so we convoyed out to the spot together. Ergh it was windy!
We helped set up their gazebo for the day and had our radio check with comms, and then got our cameras ready for the first cars through! We had a couple cars pull in, but both were able to pull off and keep going. Every car that went past showered us in red dirt….literal shower! But ohhh watching the suspension on some of these vehicles..wow!
Once the first lap was done, we were cleared to enter the course and clear from checkpoint 2 to checkpoint 4. Not far from checkpoint 3 we came across 2 beautiful bobtails, well equipped for their surroundings as they were a little red and a little black. I had never seen anything like it! We quickly shooed them back into the scrub on the hopes they wouldn’t come back onto the track. Passed checkpoint 2 and have a whole new appreciation for the competitors, on both 2 and 4 wheels as sections of this track were hectic, rocky, sandy, dips, jumps but Mallow took it all with skill and agility! ha ha ha there were definitely a few ‘fuck sorry didn’t see that one’ .
Headed past checkpoint 3 onto checkpoint 4 and a little way down the track…off to the side… it moved! It was a dingo or bush dog, it was adorable and super skittish and only a pup, so cute! Andrea was at checkpoint 4 and it was the least windy we had all day so made us some lunch and we watched the bikes hoooon past us. We had one guy pull in with a flat tyre, he was out for this race, didn’t want to chop it up. So once the lap was over he headed back to the start line with Andrea and we continued onto the next checkpoint, 5 and 6.
The track was fun, but shiiit I wouldn’t want to have to do it at speed in my car that’s for sure! by this stage we were headed towards to the big lake so there was alot more little salt lake spots and at one point we scooted outside the track along the side of the lake where it was flat open road and Cal hit the speed! So much fun! So we did get told at the beginning of the event that we may be required to pick up passengers, vehicles and spare parts. In order for these guys to work quickly they sometimes leave their parts on the side of the track with their tools still attached. We collected a jack near 2 dead tyres and bought it back with us. Not far past checkpoint 5 we had a passenger to collect – his bike had died and he needed a ride to the next point where his people could collect him. We delivered him safely to checkpoint 6.
Stage 6 was the fuel stop, if anyone needed it, but in the time we were there noone stopped to refuel, which meant they just zoomed right on by! The sound of these vehicles would make anyone want to buy one! We parked up and Cal stood on the roof of the car to get a better view, could tell me when they were coming and who it was. We transferred our jack out to the checkpoint car here as we were once again moving on after this point with the possibility of needed to collect passengers and very little space.
So once again we were on the move to the next checkpoint 7 and 8 which is where we would have been bowing out of the course but as we still had low pressure tyres we figured we would continue, so as not to drive on the road at speed with low tyres. As we were cruising past 8 we got a call from Race coms to tell us there was a stranded car between 9 and 10 we may need to tow out, so we continued through with a mission. Couldn’t see the car or the people for ages and got a call there might be 2 cars and 4 people so another course car was roped in.
We found our first car over half way between 9 and 10 and left that for the car behind us and went hunting for the 2nd vehicle. We found out they were already collected so we kept going to checkpoint 10, pulled off the tracks, and cracked a beverage! Cal opened up Mallow on the stretch back to the Haul road and we headed back to camp.
Another long, successful day with no carnage to Mallow or ourselves. Sunday night is the presentations and a buffet dinner. As volunteers we are provided dinner for free! So a quick shower and we headed into town for dinner. I tell ya the water running from me was orange!! So much dust and my hair got a wash! We were both soo absolutely knackered we weren’t sure if we would make it through the presentations let alone make it to dinner! The room was absolutely freezing, they had the air con on but definitely didn’t need it!
We stayed for a few drinks, dinner and the first round of presentations, enough to see my client win a place in his category. Said a quick congrats and then bye to Kyle and we headed back to camp. Completely crashed out! Alot of people were heading off on Monday but we were staying one more night. So the morning was a flurry of packing down and driving out. We saw a few people off but the sun came up way too early and the flies got way too friendly!
Once we were up and dressed, we headed back into town to be tourists, we had seen Hannan’s North Tourist Mine a few times over the weekend and wanted to see what it was all about. We got there for about 9am and they were open. I learnt so much. They had some older equipment there a 793C Haul Truck and a 994F Loader – got to sit in both which was cool. They are now superseded for newer machines but still wicked to see up close. Calvin is extremely knowledgeable on most things mining and it was really cool how much he explained along the way. It was a great insight into mining for someone who has never been in mining. Makes me appreciate miners more, for what they went through back in the day and even now. We got to see alot of the old mining ways for underground miners.
We sat in on a video they did about the various aspects of underground mining, was quite interesting. Saw lots of older equipment, the the old mine shaft, where they would have poured the gold etc. Was very cool! Once we had seen as much as we could of the mine we headed for lunch, 3rd pub in Kalgoorlie ticked off my list as we had a drink and lunch at the York Hotel. We sat outside, upstairs on the balcony. It was super overcast so meant it wasn’t too hot and the flies weren’t too bad.
After lunch Cal took me out to see the salt lakes in Kambalda, holy shit they are massive! It looks like they go on forever! The photos don’t do it justice 😦 Was so cool to see, and showed me another site he used to work at which we could just see from the top of this hill. We were stuffed by this stage and both saying a nanna nap was in order, so we headed back to camp. It was windy…man was it windy. We both literally jumped into the tent and I know I slept, but think Cal watched movies. I got out for a pee at one point, grabbed two cans of drink and that was dinner! haha The wind was so strong, it was battering the hell out of the tent, I really felt at one stage it would blow over! I mean I guess there were no flies!
We had a fella call out to us about 6ish to let us know they would be turning off the showers and toilets between half 7 and 8pm if we wanted a shower we better get in soon. So we had the hottest, best shower of the weekend as noone had used the water for the day! It was heaven, then straight back into the tent for some more movies and bed. It was just too windy and cold to cook!
Tuesday was the end of the trip, we woke without rushing, and packed the tent away, sorted the bags for home and back to site and hitched up and headed to town. Fuel stop first and then coffee. I dropped Cal at the airport to pick up a work vehicle, he headed to site and I took the 6.5hr drive solo back to Perth.
Very uneventful trip home, by the time I left Kalgoorlie it was about 10am and was expected to arrive home by half 4 in the arvo. I didn’t need to stop for fuel but stopped in Southern Cross for something to eat and then blink and I was driving back up my street.
Took me a few days to wash and clean the car and offload the trailer back to its hidey hole but before you knew it I was back at work 😦
Another great trip and I hope you enjoyed the read, just realising now I really didn’t take many photos this trip… too busy! Sorry all!
See you on my next adventure!
Bouncer & Mallow Adventures 