Frenzy 10 - Bright

by Des Aldridge

What a fantastic weekend it turned out to be.

The weather forecast for the week started off looking like rain  but as the week continued, the forecast changed bit by bit until by Friday night, rain was off the agenda.

Part of the Sydney contingent, Mark and Tracey, left Friday morning and spent the night in Albury, where they were joined by Glenn on Saturday before completing the trip to Wangaratta.

The Geelong group of Roger, Brian and Grant met Des on entry to Melbourne, where they crossed over to the Ford Headquarters to meet the remainder of the group, Andrew, Bob, Rick, Rudy, and Stephen (8 sharks and 1 BMW). Running about 45 minutes late by this stage, we were joined by another 928, a gleaming, fat wheeled, loud 928 with Jamie and Paul (informed by Craig).

The nine sharks and the Beemer headed off to meet the other three at Wangaratta but not before a stop in Benalla to play the "Thongaphone". The kids really enjoyed playing tunes (?!) and the play area, though Deb Holding's rendition of (goodness knows!) was a bit suspect, but she was happy! After we dragged Deb away with promises she could go back one day, we headed off for Wangaratta

The southerners were late and that one traffic light in the middle of Wangaratta did not help. The northerners got there before us, so we got the welcome!

Wow! All those 928's looked so magnificent, despite being clouded in by dust from Roger's arrival. Sadly one car didn't make it. Jamie and Paul's 928 let out clouds of black smoke whilst going through town. After we checked that they were okay, we didn't see them again.

After a slow cruise through Wang, we did the 10 minute trip out to Brown Brothers for lunch and a couple of tailored glasses of wine - a really fine meal (quality like a 928 Rudy, not quantity!) and a good start to getting to know each other. From there it was back to Wang airfield (an hour late) where we visited the Airworld museum (which looks like it might be closed and sold off in the next few weeks). The collection and the guide were very good and provided an interesting talk - we survived despite the heat in the huge hangar. What a shame if it goes.

Glenn, mishap No. 1

Carpark Airworld. Alternator belt gone. No sooner had the group got together, we were split with some staying with Glenn and the others off to Milawa Mustards (who stayed open after their closing time for us - did I mention we were late there too?).  We got together again at the Riverbank Motel. Pleasant location, and a great area out the back where the river flowed. From what the owners said, the sight of us cleaning our cars was typical of such groups. But BRIAN! He must get the award for the most pedantic cleaner - there he was actually filling in a stone chip with paint he brought along. A photo has been taken as proof. Lots of milling around, talking, and getting to know each other (though it almost felt like a meeting of old friends).

In the evening, it was down to Poplars for dinner and a time to let our hair down. I think this was the highlight of the trip for the 'group'. We managed to drink them out of "Mt. Pleasant Shiraz" .. (though I really think it was a single person! 'T'?!) .. the flow of wine being complemented with good food. A great speech (because it was short?) was given by Roger, it was a nice touch to an extremely pleasant social evening - what a great group of people we are!

I really feel we made some new and interesting friends that night. The 'kids' were so well behaved, and had their own 'social' group going.

Next morning, four brave souls took a pair of sharks for a quick fang up Mt. Buffalo.

Cripes, I never knew the 928 could hang on so well!

'Quick' was the operative word, particularly coming back down with the 'boxes' locked in 2nd - it must have been an awesome site to the couple of static cars as these 'things' screamed past at 6000 rpm. Roger's voice also changed halfway down .."have a little accident did we Roger?"

Back at the Motel, Stephen got out of Rick's passenger side and walked off muttering ... "excuse me, I am now going for a drive"...

We all had breakfast in the dining room (the early morning drivers being a bit late!) with a nice spread and a relaxed group of drivers, partners and families yet again enjoying each other's company. We delayed our departure from Bright till 11am. A 'tour' through town, around the round-about where we backtracked past each other - another great shark sight and lots of waving and then off across the Towonga Gap. Just over the top, we stopped for a view and a photo shoot. At this stage we were down to nine sharks (Andrew having stayed in Milawa and Frank heading off to Rutherglen earlier in the day). One shark asked if we could go a bit slower for the remaining windy road, so they went first to set the pace - there was NO CHANGE!

I am not going to say it was hard driving, but a few cars were short on fuel, so we called into Mt. Beauty. We arrived at the Service Station only to find a local 928 filling up.  He spent a bit of time with the group and went away with a LandsharkOz card. Personally, I thought another car there, the Bentley, looked rather 'bulky' (heh! heh!) and dated compared to the 928s.

Again, a short tour of Mt. Beauty (where some witnessed a glider being winched into the air), by which time the local constabulary had packed up the breathalyser station. A few k's out and another photo shoot at a lookout with Mt. Bogong in the background.

A pleasant drive down the Kiewa Valley with lots of turns and hills so those of us up the back got great views of the twisting line of sharks.

Glenn, mishap No. 2

Turn off at Dederang and Glenn pulls up with an engine that gave a couple of misses. Fuel pump u/s. Glenn tried his best, but just couldn't get enough fuel flowing. Olga and Judi set up an area where they were courted by a local bull who sounded like he was interested. Young Alan was content to play his hand held games and have a bit of a snooze. After Mark and Olga departed, Alan, Judi and I went into Yackandandah to get some lunch about 4pm, passing Tracey and Theresa going back to Glenn.

I didn't make it to Beechworth, but others have commented on that.

Finally made it back to Melbourne about 9:30pm, exhausted, Judi quite sunburnt (from hanging around the bull).

What did I get out of it?

Other than 'lets make it at least a day longer next time'? No doubt the sharks were a highlight. I love driving my beast, but being part of a convoy of these, it was sometimes tingling when going around a curve or looking in the rear view at the line of 928s. Seeing them line up two abreast, changing positions at speed! Being able to walk around a variety of these machines was most enjoyable. The lack of any form of snobbery - we all enjoyed and respected each other's machine.

Being able to show Judi I was not the only one obsessed with 'sharks' in fact, there was no-one who wasn't. But the people! I first felt this with the couple of mini-frenzies down in Geelong, but the Bright trip really brought home the joy of mixing socially with drivers and without doubt one of the most important aspects, their partners/families.

Good luck to our BMW driver, Bob, in his search for a 928. It must have been hard during the driving stints to be up the back and perhaps a bit out of it while still enjoying it, but he was certainly one of us in the social activities.

My first Frenzy, but not the last. All the organising in the world does not make a successful Frenzy - it is the people, and we have them - thanks friends.

Des Aldridge