“1988 – 2008” 20 Years of “Affordable Excitement”

HQs take on Mount Panorama 2010

The Armour All Bathurst 12 Hour people invited us along as support for another year and after months of hard work and organisation behind-the-scenes, a field of 50+ HQs were ready to take on the Mountain.

We arrived from all over Australia to glorious sunshine and the buzz of anticipation was in the air. In between setting up tents, establishing pit bays and document checking, there was the usual catching up with old mates – sharing recent racing stories and speculating about the weekend to come. The camaraderie of the HQ guys was on display for all to see, as everyone worked hard to get their areas and their cars ready for the early Friday morning start.

One of the biggest improvements over previous years was the “HQ Headquarters” that is the Britz Motorhome. What a change for Dale, Colin and the helpers not working from a tyre heap or car boot. About time, perhaps the association should buy him one.

We were all up and about bright and early on Friday morning, ready for a big day ahead. Everyone had a bit of a laugh at the driver’s briefing when the Clerk of the Course asked how many first-timers there were. Lots of hands went up – oh the look on his face…we all know newbies are usually a bit of trouble! After all the usual formalities, the huge field was herded into the marshalling area. What an impressive sight that was! More than 50 HQs all lined up ready to race – no other category racing that weekend had even had close to a full field!

Minutes later everyone was out on the track, some for their first look at the Mountain – many for their first lap ever! Fastest in practice was current Victorian champion Rod Raatjes, followed by current Australian champion Spud Wood and experienced Group N Torana racer Andrew Williams. Notable mention must go to Ryan Hansford who found himself in 9^th place – pretty impressive for his first time ever racing a HQ!

As usual, there were a few bumps and scrapes and a few guys didn’t complete the practice session - Gary Bonwick blew the engine in his borrowed car, Kevin Stoopman had no third gear, and Peter Green Jr and Greg King pulled out with engine problems. The biggest casualty of the practice session was Craig Milvain, who crashed his freshly painted, newly sponsored HQ at Falken Elbow sustaining serious damage to the front. The concrete walls at Bathurst are very unforgiving!

Three hours later, after plenty of tinkering and repairs to the cars, everyone lined up for the qualifying session. This was a relatively trouble-free session, with usual suspects at the front of the pack. Times were a tad slower due to the change in weather conditions. Andy Williams qualified fastest, followed closely by Raatjes and Spud Wood. Good effort from Jamie Furness to qualify 4^th and kudos to Mike McLeod, Brad Schomberg, Dion Cidoni and Ryan Hansford who all put in a strong effort to qualify in the top ten. Gav Porteous, who was struggling with a faulty fuel pump, only managed two laps.

HQ family rescue - thanks to the generosity of the Wood family, Gary’s weekend wasn’t over! Spud and Greg offered Gary their spare engine to replace his broken one and the crew pitched in to help get the car ready for the first race. Thanks guys for really showing the spirit of HQ racing.

With dark clouds looming and a wet track, the cars lined up for the first race of the weekend. The race provided great entertainment as usual and was relatively trouble free, with Raatjes taking the win from Williams, followed by Wood, Stoopman, Furness and Hansford. An outstanding effort from Adam Bywater who started 48^th after problems in qualifying and managed to fly through the field to 27^th! Bonwick also put on quite a show in this race, coming from the rear of the grid all the way up to 20^th position – one spot in front of Greg Wood who lent him the engine that saved his weekend!

On Friday night we had a fantastic group dinner at the Bathurst Bowls Club, organised by Graham Boulter. The 100+ attendees were entertained by guest speaker, 77 year old Bathurst veteran Bob Holden who shared some amazing stories from his motor racing career spanning some 60 years. Bob was co-driving a Toyota Yaris in the Armor All 12 Hour. A great night was had by all.

Saturday dawned a bit wet, which had all the guys trying to work out whether to run wet or dry tyres. It was really 50/50 and tyre strategy ended up playing a huge part in this race. Spud Wood chose wets and dropped back a bit as the track dried out, only to come back into contention as a shower came through and eventually back to take first place. Stoopman held on for 2nd, with Raatjes in 3^rd another front-runner Williams dropped back to tenth after spinning in the wet. Bywater continued his strong performance advancing to 15^th and Bonwick showed his wet weather experience to finish 5^th. Another stand-out performer was NSW State Champion Greg King, who finished mid-field after starting at the rear due to engine problems in race one – he only just made it to the grid after doing a final tune up while other cars were in the marshalling area!

Another great story from the weekend was that of Craig Milvain, After Friday’s disaster he managed to buy a car in town for $500 (minus engine and gearbox), then he and his crew, with the help of the TAFE boys, worked through the night to completely rebuild the whole car! So Craig made it to the grid for race two and raced well to get from ROF to 36^th. Yet another example of the commitment and passion of the HQ guys and three cheers for the Smash Repair Team

Heading into race three on Saturday afternoon, everyone was a bit nervous about the dark sky and severe storms that had been forecast. Luckily for us, the rain held off and our last race of the weekend was dry. As the race developed, Raatjes led and Williams made good progress to get back to the front of the pack and ended up in an intense battle for second place with Spud Wood. There was a lot of panel rubbing going on between these two, which made for great racing but had most observers nervous that it would sadly end in tears. It did…the result, Williams head-butting the wall after coming into Caltex Chase on the last lap at over at 200km an hour. Quite a ride one would think.

Spud Wood took second place, behind Raatjes who had comfortably led the whole race. Stoopman steered clear of the carnage and found himself on the podium for 3^rd, with Bonwick coming in 4^th. Another exceptional drive from Greg King for tenth, and special mentions to Jordan Symes, Carl McHenry, Brad Schomberg, John Agosta, Gavin Porteous and Matthew Boulter who were all on the money all weekend.

The Hard Charger awards went to two very deserving drivers – Greg King, who made up 40 positions in the races, and Gary Bonwick, who made up 46. Congratulations to both guys and their crews for a great weekend of racing. Thanks to Kialla Car Sales Shepparton and Boohjass Restaurant and Wine Bar Shepparton for the $200 prize money and trophy for each driver.

Best Presented Car went to Adam Bywater, who was also in the running for the Hard Charger award after a fantastic weekend. Thanks to Mercbits for the $200 prize money and trophy. Also, courtesy of Rob Southouse’s Mercbits, every driver received a commemorative medallion as recognition of their participation.

Thanks to Colin, Lou and Paul who spent all weekend helping Dale to keep everything running smoothly. Thanks to Graham Boulter for his commentary and organising the group dinner, and thanks also to Mike Stevenson and Gary Foreman from Typrepower for their generosity in sponsoring the event. We love you guys.

As usual with any event there are many tales, some sad and some happy, but that’s motor racing.

Finally and most importantly, thanks to all the drivers for their clean and exciting racing and the crews for all their hard work – it’s you guys that make HQ racing the best category in Australia! And let’s not forget the officials without whom we would not be competing. Good work.

Keep an eye out in the next edition of Unique Cars magazine for a round-up of the event. Journalist Craig Parker and his cameraman who were observing and interviewing all weekend so no doubt they will have lots of great material and photos to print!

See you next year!