9 May 2026
I like fast rides in the forest – zipping down dirt tracks and always looking for the right apex in a corner. I love the adrenalin and dopamine hit when you get to the end and realise you didn’t mess up so much that you came off the bike.
I also have a lifelong association with cars even though I am very much a lifelong cylist who prefers non-motorised hobbies. My exposure to cars came first through my parents and then through Nigel. My dad built hot rods and took us from a very young age to see racing at local oval tracks with midgets and sprint cars and street stocks, etc. I think my hometown was home of the world’s fastest 1/4 mile banked oval… or something like that.
My mom closely followed Indy Cars and my hometown was only an hour away from ‘The Brickyard’, home to The Indianapolis 500, the ‘Greatest Spectacle in Racing’ and the world’s largest single-day sports event in which they cram 300,000 people into the track.
We grew up going to Indy 500 practices, and occasionally the Qualifying weekend. I’ve been to the race itself twice. And every race weekend in my first 18 years of life, my parents would hold a family party and everyone would come over for grilled foods and salads while we listened to the race on the radio (as there was a TV blackout locally). The month of May in Indiana was all about the Indy 500, regardless of whether you were into auto racing the rest of the year or not. Every Hoosier was a race fan in May.
Then I met Nigel, who likes to drive cars very fast and drives heavy vehicles for a living. He owns multiple historic vehicles and one very, very beloved muscle car. He is into the V8 Supercars – Australia’s version of US stock cars, only exclusively run on circuits and street courses intstead of ovals.
I think the V8s that Nigel likes are more interesting than IndyCar, but the ‘genre’ of racing I’ve always been drawn to is rally cars. I always thought that would be the one that I would ‘follow’ since I loved how the navigator has to call the turns and the driver just follows the directions. I loved that the cars got air and skidded through corners, and it was all done out in the forest. This was much more my idea of motorised fun than officially sanctioned, paved racetracks.
A few years ago I saw that you could go for a ride in a rally car, and it wasn’t all that expensive. Nigel has done the V8 supercar ‘drive’ experience at Winton, Sandowne and Bathurst (3 times). But he thought a rally car drive would be interesting, too.
So, I bought myself a Rally Car ride experience for my 50th birthday. I don’t really buy into celebrations all that much and normally don’t even celebrate my birthday at all. But this year is a big year. It’s my 50th birthday. I also hit 25 years of living permanently in Oz and 20 years of citizenship here. So let’s do something fun to celebrate that is actually doing something, not just sitting around eating or drinking alcohol!
We had perfect weather on the day. Sunny, no wind, perfect temps. Nigel bought himself a bunch of drive laps and got to drive three different cars.
He said it was challenging and very, very different to driving the V8s on a paved circuit race track. While the laws of physics don’t change, how you apply that to braking and steering does when you have no grip. He did have lots of fun, though. One of his friends and that guy’s wife also came, so it was fun to catch up with them and watch his friend drive, too.
It was all very laid back and friendly, and there were only three other people doing drives in the session besides Nigel and his friend. When Nigel has done the V8 race experiences, it is all very formal and there are always lots of people. On this day, they gave all of the drivers a demo on each of the two circuits to show them what to do and not to do before they did their drives. Normally there would be a charge.
And, they gave me an extra lap (5 in total) if I put the video of my laps on Nigel’s SD card instead of a separate one. I was more than happy to share the SD card instead of buying a separate one – particularly since I would be the one downloading and doing all the tech once home, regardless of the number of cards! They also allowed me to do 3 laps in one car and 2 laps in a different one, instead of 4 laps in one car like I’d paid for.
So we were very impressed with the laid back, excellent customer service and how smoothly the whole session ran.
My first car was a rear wheel drive. If you are wanting the most extreme Mr Toad’s Wild Ride, go in a rear wheel drive. This one really flings you about the most. You are just all over the place within the harness. My butt came up out of the seat and slammed down quite hard in a couple of places in this car. It was the most fun in terms of being flung (and if this doesn’t remind you of the opening chapter in Bill Bryson’s ‘Walk in the Woods’, you need to re-read that one).
So that was lots of fun. What a great way to start off my end-of-contract relaxation!
The only downside was that the course was just outside of Sydney. We went on Saturday. And Sunday was Mother’s Day. Nigel’s parents live just outside of Sydney in the Royal National Park. So we couldn’t go to Sydney on Mother’s Day weekend and not go see them.
So, yes, I had to go for the visit with Nigel and go out for lunch with his parents and sister and then spend the night at their house – out the back in the mouldy caravan with Nigel. Yes, I still love the bugger enough to endure that. But his parents are almost 87 and 88, so you never know at that point how many family holidays they will be around for. So that’s a no-brainer sacrifice on my part.
It was all okay. I had not seen them in 20 years. And I figure if 20 years is the frequency with which a visit is required, this was most likely my last one! The nice thing is that they live in a gorgeous, exclusive location and I was able to go for a nice walk the next morning in scenery that I don’t normally experience since we rarely go to the coast.
So with all that fun out of the way, I now just need to clean and pack up the house. Then we’ll be on our way. I’m thinking it looks like I’ll shove off around the 24th or 25th depending on weather.
Unfortunately, they are predicting two big rain bands to move through by the end of the month. This does not bode well for open roads, but we’ll just see what happens and remain flexible on routing. Here is an article about this on the ABC today:
So don’t expect to hear from me until the ride is finished. There’s no way I’m spending time on a computer or phone to upload content while I’m on the road after an intense 12 months of computer work. I’m very much looking forward to only having the phone on to check the weather forecast and text my location/proof of life photos to my immediate contacts. I will be keeping my hard copy journal, though, and will post the days once home.
Now, let’s get out there and head into the great, wide open!