Phil's Weekend Adventure

[014 Phil]

Had a HUGE last weekend!! 2000 km round trip, & lots of stories from it.

Motivation for the trip was picking up a pair of NOS Monza door-skins.


The guy who had them was an HDT Special Vehicles employee for almost the entire period of its operation, so we had a great couple of hours.


Next stop was a visit to John Harvey, who ran HDT SV from 1980-87, raced for the team, a Bathurst winner, plus countless other championships. That was an amazing afternoon/evening.



The following morning, on the way to our next visit we stumbled on a car show. How lucky was that!



Final visit for the weekend was to Bruce Nowacki, who worked for the HDT race-team from 1972-82, & masterminded numerous victories.

[014 Phil]

After lunch with Bruce it was time to head home, & that's where the challenge began.


The smoke was an ominous sign of the bushfire disaster to come, with numerous homes & livestock lost.

Strong winds & extreme heat also resulted in treacherous road conditions.


Road closures had us back-tracking & heading to the mountain & winter snowfields. First 'major' town was Omeo, where we needed to get fuel.


Unfortunately both service stations in the town were closed, & we didn't have enough to get to the next town where we could get fuel.
Luckily the bar staff in the pub opposite were very helpful, & were eventually able to get in touch with someone from the servo, who agreed to come back to unlock & fuel us. This all took a couple of beers, after which we were back on the road.




Very picturesque scenery, but also a late night by the time we got home. What an adventure!!

[001 Neville]

Sounds like you had fun

Doesn't look like you took the Brock Monza though!

[014 Phil]

Sounds like you had fun

Doesn't look like you took the Brock Monza though!

Pretty happy I didn't Neville, with the amount of bark & branches we were running over. There was some decent size stuff we just couldn't avoid, so much better in my mate's SS ute.

[026 Nik]

Gee, John is looking skinny, is he OK?

[014 Phil]

Gee, John is looking skinny, is he OK?

Only 53 kg. No explanation why he can't put on a bit of weight, but not ill.

[026 Nik]

Gee, John is looking skinny, is he OK?

Only 53 kg. No explanation why he can't put on a bit of weight, but not ill.

Thats good to hear hes not ill. Ive always thought he was a great guy. Ive read the Rise and Fall of Peter Brock which he co-wrote?
Id love to know Johns opinion on the 1976 Bathurst result.
And I love to hear a story he spoke of on Bertie Street about Peter Janson (I asked about Janson, and he said he was going to tell a tail of one of the Captains parties, but sadly he never did).

[014 Phil]

I think John's view of Bathurst '76 is pretty clear; he should be a two-time Bathurst winner. Then there's '86, when co-driver Neil Lowe was painfully slow.

The Captain didn't get a mention, but I'm curious now.....

[227 Jason R]

Looks like a fantastic trip. It must have been great to chat to those guys. I bet they had some interesting stories to tell.
The white Hk looks very nice too. It's got me motivated to head of into the garage for a few hours.
Cheers
Jason.