My Ride With Rusty - 1/12/05

[MADDER]

MY RIDE WITH RUSTY

Prologue

Well, a great way to kick off summer, 30+ degrees, cloudless sky and here I am at Calder, two 3-Up V8 Supercars howling round the track. There’s Jones’ BOC car screaming down the straight. Walking around to alongside the pits, the big transporters come into view, first the BOC monsters and further down towards the end of the pits, the SBR trucks. Soon enough the Mercury Silver SBR car comes down into pit lane, the engine is killed and it rolls to halt. Right beside one of the SBR trucks stands a wiry guy in a light coloured race-suit, top down with the sleeves around his waist, in a t-shirt and cap, lined up for a photo with a pair of fans. Yep, that’s Rusty. To the soundtrack of the SBR V8 roaring into life and rapidly fading in to the distance, I nervously grab my small collection of ‘souvenirs’ and sidle up to him. He’s now signing some shagged tyres that sit on the back of a Beaurepaires ute. Next some SBR caps and then his attention is drawn to me. Handshakes, congrats and small talk, I blame him for my sunburnt lips from perpetually smiling in the sun and the wind of Phillip Island for two days straight. I hand over my bits and pieces, a BOSS plenum cover and 3 engine-bay BOSS 260 badges, one from my own ute. I fumble with a white paint pen and he comes to the rescue with his own silver pens to happily sign a big one across the plenum cover, “Russell Ingall, SBR #1 05”. Black across the BOSS 260 badges declares “Russell Ingall #1”. A bit more of a chat about next year and I can tell he can’t wait. Many thanks and I’m on my way to stash the valuables in the ute and come back for the big one.

Back in the shade of the transporter now, there’s a small group of anxious guests making small talk. Having signed their lives away and been issued yellow wrist-bands, they wait their turn to be handed a race-suit from a slow stream of weak-kneed people coming from round front of the truck where the SBR car has been rolling to a halt. Before joining them I walk around to where the car is stopped and watch as two fresh victims are strapped in to become passengers of who I presume to be James Courtney, champion in the making. The engine fires and is given a kick in the guts. It roars before the car sedately moves off towards the end of pit-lane where he sinks the boot in and off into the distance. Meanwhile the BOC car is round the back of the track and so it goes that they alternately drop into the pits after every two laps for fresh meat.

I go back to do the deed, sign the forms, and line up for my suit. Rusty wanders past mentioning something about “getting suited up”. He’s snared by a small group that don’t know how to operate their camera. Russ is happy to oblige and takes the camera and fiddles for awhile himself. More photo attempts are made at different angles, not the slightest bit of impatience (except from me). My turn comes and I shake his hand as our picture is taken. He still has the cap on, sensible given the harsh sun at a notoriously hot track. The photo shows his face shaded while mine’s squinting in the hard light. I get the feeling though, that the cap is something to hide behind as well. He happily gives a lot of himself to the fans but has an air of someone who is still unassuming about his star status. I let him go and get ready, as I go and wait for a suit.

The suit and the Calder environment are at cross-purposes today and I strip the top half off again and tie the sleeves around my waist. I put on the supplied hairnet to help protect my close shorn scalp from the strong rays. The car pulls up again and wobbly-legged passengers climb out with a mixture of grins, disbelief and exhilaration. Comments about the in-car heat abound. Amongst the waiting group there is talk of who will get front and back-seat rides. It seems the shorter get the back which puts me in with a great chance for the front. The minutes go by and the silver SBR machine comes back again and again. I take these chances to check it out. It matches the description I’ve read before of these 3-Up vehicles. They’ve taken a standard Mercury Silver XR8 sedan and stripped it. It seems nothing original is left on the inside while outside it is largely stock metal with all plastic replaced with Supercar style fibreglass. Another notable difference is the single wiper. Underneath the changes are far more extreme, hinted at by the wheels and their attitude along with the huge mono-block Brembos. The sandwich-board tells me it has a 730hp, 6litre, SVO block, Hollinger 6-speed and a 0-100km/h of 4 seconds, top speed 305km/h. While I muse over what’d it take to knock-off the SBR stickered bonnet and put it on my like-coloured ute, I get closer to the front of the line and am given gloves. Next passenger change is taking a bit longer than usual as there’s a driver change as well. The smaller unmistakable stature of Rusty prepares to climb in for his shift and it’s minutes before my turn.

As I clench and unclench my fists in the unfamiliar gloves I get accused of nervous fidgeting, I deny this vehemently. A few laps later the car stops at the back end of the transporter rather than the front. Mumbles ensue form the nearby group about another blown gearbox. I know that’s not the case and sure enough out comes the fuel can. Boot is opened, another notable difference, and a short while later it’s slammed shut again and a knock on it signals the champ to head out again. Finally I’m at the front of the line and the helmet’s on. Photos are taken before the car comes back down pit-lane. I wait for the signal and straddle the wall as it rolls in again.

The Main Event

I get rushed by the support staff and am instructed to put right foot in first, then drop my bum over the cross-member and into the seat. Easier said than done, but I’m soon in and the support guy fumbles with the harness straps which I seem to be mostly sitting on. A few adjustments later, and after what felt like head-butting Russ as I jostle about, there’s one last photo and a thumbs up. Rusty flicks the switch and hits the starter button. The engine roars to life and he touches the reset button on his lap timer and the LCD panel flicks to zero. We burble along pit lane until metres from the end and the foot goes down. The big push back into the seat continues as we blast out onto the straight. No sooner are we winding up and suddenly the anchors are on. 1350kg of freshly fuelled car with its three occupants pulls up awesomely. Into the first corner and back on the power again. Come out on the edge of adhesion. Rapid acceleration and then, anchors. Hard right, straight then hard left. Short straight and then through the chicane at an indecent speed, bouncing off the strips. Then we’re pointing up the mound on the back straight and its full tilt uphill. Down the other side, speed building and then it’s stoppers again. In and out of the dogs-leg before the final corner. Slow in but very fast out as this corner is set up to blast out of. Again a slight drift into the main straight. Now we wind right up, no speedo in sight and I give up trying to spot it. Glorious sound from the engine, right up to the end when we hit the big wall of braking. This time we come out of turn one with a bit more sideways action. Rusty finishes the rest of the lap in the same style as before with additional drift all the way. He’s clearly having fun this time round and the back steps out progressively over and over again. What becomes obvious is that Russ lives to be in the car, any shyness falls away on the track. We bounce through the chicane, go hard over the hump and split off at the end of the back straight into the pits. Russell doesn’t give up yet and winds it up down the pit straight before he has to slow down and negotiate the witches hats. Finally he kills it and we coast until the final brakes. The door opens and I’m urged to get out by the support guy who I ignore. I reach across, and in a moment, realise my hand is out of Russ’s field of view. He spots it and there’s a handshake and a nod. And as if to quell any doubt as to who I’ve just ridden with, I notice the glove has one finger custom-shortened. Bum-first I climb out onto a much less exciting terra-firma.

Epilogue

I hand on my helmet and gloves and go to un-suit. The wrist-band is cut off and I go back to grab a few posters. As we walk to the car-park and I say good-bye to the rest of the group, I again hear the bark of the big V8 behind me. I turn in time to see it drive off between the BOC transporters, back to the SBR trucks where it will be re-loaded, next stop Sydney*.

*For those of you up there, 8th December at Eastern Creek, go to the SBR site and see if you can still get a spot, now!!

[HP Dude]

Excellent write-up! Sounds like an excellent experience!

[deesun]

My heart rate is still @ 180bpm.Great story.

[Charliewool]

Great read Madder!... What an awesome experience.

[MYVYSS]

Mate great write up and just about sums it up, I did mine on the 30th with both the Toll Racing VY and Castrol Perkins VY....its is incredible, the most amazing thing I took from the experience is actually how violent a ride it really is, that feeling under breaking is just INSANE........I was lucky enough to complete 5 laps in each car....if anyone has the chance to experience this either in a ford or a holden....please pay the money you will not be disappointed.

[Jeld-Wen Falcon]

Sounds like a load of fun! Id love to do it. How did young James Courtney run?

[Bucknaked]

How many laps in total do you get? Its $500 for a ride in the 3up?

[MADDER]

Thanks for the good reviews guys. I just needed to share the experience as well as I could for all the faithful.

Courtney was going hard, I saw it a bit sideways out of the last corner a few times.

Only got two laps as they had a rescheduled flight to catch. I wasn't a paying customer and they were winding up.

BTW: Charlie, good to see your true feelings coming out in your avatar.

[paul7v7]

one word....WOW...

well done Jason, sounded like an awesome envious ride

[WASP]

Absolutely fantastic story Madder. That would be the post of the month.

[Brute6]

Thats awesome! Well written too, very easy to picture what was happening. Its one thing i want to do before i die!

[Rev28K]

Q1. What lap times were you doing (typical laps not neccessarily your ones)?

Q2. I've noticed the missing finger too. What's the story there?

[MADDER]

Originally Posted by CDAA

Absolutely fantastic story Madder. That would be the post of the month.

Thanks Colville, mind you it was only the 2nd day of the month!

[MADDER]

Originally Posted by Rev28K

Q1. What lap times were you doing (typical laps not neccessarily your ones)?

Q2. I've noticed the missing finger too. What's the story there?

A1: Wasn't checking the timer anyway but as he didn't do a full lap without starting or finishing in the pits it wouldn't matter.

A2: Dunno but it's certainly memorable.