XXXX Townsville Colour
Townsville needed its time in the sun. The year has been a shocker for Queensland’s unofficial northern capital. At first there was the floods, then cyclone Yasi, more floods and then bitter blow of the Cowboys loosing match winner Johnathan Thurston in a cruel twist to the final State Of Origin clash.
Just for a moment Thurston’s knee ligament damage was jettisoned from the headlines. Townsville’s event-crazed local newspaper, the Bulletin devoted the first 13-pages to the V8 race on Saturday. Early general news was about drivers visiting schools devastated by the New Year’s floods, rubbing shoulders with Townsville’s top gun fighter pilots, grid girls stories, assurances there would be now waiting lists for public transport ad infinitum…
If you managed to munch your way through the colour, bluff and bluster in the local rag you will have worked up a mighty North Queensland thirst. Over at the XXXX Retreat, it was elbow room only as punters packed in to quench king-sized thirsts.
The pre-event activities saw the drivers up to their old tricks. Michael Caruso was the most successful of the bunch, landing a giant 70cm Barramundi. He had hooked the big one which was more than you can say for his effort in the opening 72-lap race on Saturday when he banged away with the also-rans eventually finishing 16th.
Still it was a better result than James Courtney managed. Courtney’s horror maiden year at the Holden Racing Team continued. There was more damage and more heartbreak for the reigning series champ. After colliding heavily with fellow Commodore racer David Reynolds, Courtney was forced to retire the HRT machine after just 30 laps. You’ve gotta think that Courtney’s day started to go pear-shaped when he couldn’t even dress properly for work.
There was a slight wardrobe malfunction. Courtney had mistakenly dressed in XXXX ambassador and team-mate Garth Tander’s race suit for qualifying. Maybe his thinking was sound. If you can’t perform like your team-mate you may as well dress like him. The suit didn’t help Courtney find any speed. He qualified 19th.
Later Tander was the class of the field, picking up the pieces of HRT’s disastrous year by winning the Saturday heat. He brought along Mike Henry to the press conference to share in the glory of going from the outhouse to the penthouse in the space of two rounds. After HRT’s disastrous meeting at Hidden Valley the team management was given a reshuffle with Henry put in charge of Holden’s iconic factory operation. But Henry, who has spent time in Formula One and earned huge respect as a top operator, went to pains to explain the success had nothing, zero, zip to do with him. Instead he praised Tander and the troops in the team. And Tander couldn’t resist pumping up the tyres of his team saying the victory was up there with his triumph at Bathurst with former team-mate Will Davison in 2009.
In the crowd watching HRT pick itself off the canvas were members of the USS Germantown, a US warship which had docked at precisely the right time for some well earned R&R. The ship’s 700 crew had let their hair down in Townsville, some getting their revhead fix at the V8s after spending time with the disaster relief effort in Japan following the tsunami and earthquake.
The crew had a cook’s tour of the team garages, the media centre and were suitably impressed with their brush with motor racing in the North Queensland tropics. ‘Man these cars are spaceships. They are a bit like our NASCARS until you look closer and realise our NASCARS are dinosaurs and belong in Jurassic Park. The ‘super V8s’ are awesome man. They sound and look a million-bucks,’ an impressed lance corporal off the ship said.
On Sunday the boat was gone, ready to take part in Exercise Talisman Sabre - a joint Australian and US exercise involving up to 30,000 personnel from the navy, air force and army.
The warship had missed the finale to Townsville’s rev head weekend. The Septic Tanks had missed Jamie Whincup beat team-mate Craig Lowndes. The Team Vodafone pair had driven, appropriately in army camouflage livery after taking part in a promo tank race with the army earlier in the week.
The sun had set on the third Townsville V8 race and it was time for fans the drivers to party like there was no tomorrow. In town, the Mad Cow had become party central and the drinks flowed. More than 600 guests, including many V8 drivers, had celebrated long into the night and had cheered on Aussie Mark Webber in the British Grand Prix on the big screen. And as the hangovers kicked in normal services had resumed in Townsville again.
