At the age of 80 Karl Sepetauc is a very active member
and I'm certain that many readers would be very happy to
be doing speeds in excess of 300kph at this time in their lives

I turned the ignition off and abandoned the warmth of my car to step onto an icy grassed car park. It was 12 degrees. The breeze seemed to be coming straight off the snowy mountains. The sun was trying its hardest to warm the uncharitable cold air of a winter morning. I had 5 cars to run this day. A decision that was made the night before in the warmth of my new workshop, heated by a pot belly stove which seems to have an insatiable appetite for small pieces of wood. Fuelled with a couple of glasses of port and a few crackers and cheese we somehow came to the idea that these 5 cars haven't been run for almost 12 months. So they were placed in the boot along with the other gear necessary to run them on a circular concrete track.

As the cars were being prepared nothing seemed to be able to increase the ambient temperature above 12 C. This was the pattern of the day but it did get to 15 C at about 2-30pm. At which point the magnitude of the temperature decreased in an inversely proportional manner to the length of the shadows.

I had the pleasure of meeting Scott and Kate Clydesdales son Thomas. As we shook hands I asked Thomas how old he was. As he held two fingers out to me he said in a very authoritative voice, "I'm 2 actually." This amused us greatly. It is plain to see the effects of his parents' intellect even at this early stage.

Doug Sinclair is running cars built by his grandfather and father. He is always a very enthusiastic competitor.	The Tulloch pit area for Craig and his son James. Craig's 10cc car was putting in a furious speed around 311kph when the engine let go. We felt for him.	Glenn Bransby unearths a few gems every now and then this old car and engine being his latest find.

So we got some cars running and the fastest time of the day was put in by Craig Tulloch with 311.041 from his 10cc A car. A very fast time given the temperature of the day. Unfortunately on his second run the power developed inside the engine could not be retained within the constraints of modern metallurgy and it blew up at about 311 spoiling what could have been an even faster run than previous. Oh the perils of motor racing. Kevin Barker almost broke the Australian record with 244.067. He really has that little 1.5cc A class car going well now.

Glenn Bransby's 5cc class car usually puts in good times.	The Mansell 'Juggernaught' did another clean run. Taken out of moth balls, it did 126.84 on a mixture that was a bit too rich

One of the cars dusted off was my good old reliable "Mansell Juggernaught" powered by a 5cc O.S. Max. It did 126.8 and I was happy with that. Running on a gear ratio of 2.35:1 it needs big tyres to make it go fast. My other 4 cars were all M class 3.5cc. One of these was not able to run because in the quick decision to run it the night before I forgot that it had no battery mounting. So that left me with 3 M class cars, which were "87K" with the 3cc Mansell engine, which did 102.35. "87C" with a 2.5cc OPS, which did 144.1 and the Picco 3.5cc "87E" which did 162.2. At the end of the 8 timed laps I hit the fuel shut off with the bristle broom, but nothing happened. The car was still going flat out. Lap after lap I tried to shut it off. Nothing could be done except let it run out of fuel and hope that Ric, on the centre pole, didn't have to do anything in an emergency. After what seemed like 150 laps the car finally gave in and rolled to a stop. Alan Barnes was watching and agreed with me that this was a very embarrassing thing to happen. Mark Osborne, always quick with a bit of humour suggested that I should talk to a bloke he knows that wrote a book about the design of shut off valves. The actual title of that book is "The Gentleman's Guide To Fuel Shut-off Valves" written by Mark Mansell. B.E.(Mech). A.S.T.C. 

Ric Munro did 190.395 with his M class 3.5cc car. Well and truly out on his own, nothing else in that class could get anywhere near that.

During the lunch-break I wandered up to the canteen to buy a potato pie which was nice and hot. Can't beat this on a cold day. It was so good I decided to buy another one which was devoured with the same enjoyment as the first.

It was Karl Sepatauc's 80th birthday. He ran his 10cc A class car and it did 310 but failed to register a time. Many of us would like to be doing those kinds of speeds at that age.   And so as the temperature was reluctant to increase in magnitude, I decided to depart and resume the warmth of my pot-belly stove heated new workshop. Driving home I reflected upon the day's activities and events. Yes, it was another enjoyable day at the park.