Race 27, Tallowood Lodge

So, another beautiful summer Sunday morning, and a brand new track - quite straight, not too steep, nothing remarkable but enjoyable enough...

Eleven carts out and about today, but plenty of room on this smooth country road.

A bit congested at the finish line though, maybe because the sunlight was so bright, maybe because some drivers insist on finishing sideways?

Has Ferrari built a billycart? No, it's Paddles with smart new bodywork and wheels - don't expect it to stay this clean for long, though.

Coming through... did we say plenty of room before? Not when you've "got me a car as big as a whale"...

Get a grip, man! Oh well, everything else is illegal, might as well include the tyre tread.

Make the logo bigger! (in-joke for graphic designers).

Clearly, gravity racing is strictly a sport for finely-honed athletes...

After the race, it was down to the lake for breakfast. An old-time bush poet came over and entertained us with a few verses - that's what you can hear at the end of the race film, by the way.

What you don't usually see in the race vids, is the way our trophies keep getting added-to inbetween races. Here's a pretty good likeness of Death Machine, gracing the wooden spoon.

Official results:

1. Old 47
2. Kymbo
3. Death Ray
4. Obsession
5. Trollywood
6. Chariot Of The Dogs
7. Ton 'O' Fun
8. Paddles
9. Bootylicious
10. Death Machine
11. Quicksilver

Check the movie here.

Cameras and crew, we salute you! See you next time...

Race 26, Stiffy's Beach

October 18 2009… so, the new estate by the lake still isn’t built, which means our track is not yet out of bounds. A short but demanding dash to the water’s edge, with twisty corners and a rain-soaked surface – this could be interesting…

The ground-rattling leviathan known as Old 47 sports a wide-angle vidcam mounted high at the back, you can see it below, and the photo above is what it sees. If you’ve seen the race movie, you’ll have seen the full effect…

Did we mention the rain-soaked surface? Quicksilver hangs on, for now…

Death Machine, however, doesn’t...

It soon becomes a familiar sight, though…

Even the normally cautious Chariot of the Dogs goes walkies in the bush…

D-Max has learnt something from the previous race… don’t worry about pedestrians, perhaps?

Oops, I did it again… not a lot of tread on them fancy looking tyres, then…

Keep your eyes on the road, gentlemen…

41kph, stopping distance 20m – you do the maths…

Yeah, thought so…

It’s like déjà vu all over again…

Everyone makes it eventually, and the industrial espionage gets underway…

Official Results:

1. Obsession
2. Enterprise
3. Dmax
4. Ton 'O' Fun
5. Bootylicious
6. Paddles
7. Death Ray
8. Old 47
9. Chariot of the Dogs
10. Trollywood
11. Quicksilver
12. Death Machine

Check the movie here!

AIGRF remains indebted as always to friends and supporters for setting up, clearing up and recording the event for posterity. See you next time…

Season 3 Opener – Race 25, Baker's Delight

September 20 2009: back to one of our favourite tracks, and the now–traditional venue for a new season curtain-raiser. That’s right, it’s the fabulous and fearsome Mount Sugarloaf downhill drop, as AIGRF enters its third year of mechanised madness…

Luckily the laws of gravity haven’t changed since last season, well maybe they have for D-Max, seen here heading for the bush on the first corner… and no, those boots were not made for walking…

Yes, it’s a quick one, and straight into the early morning sun…

With steep drops on both sides, it’s good to see those safety barriers along the way. It looks like a miniature metal hut on wheels, but Dogmatic hits top speed on the long straight stretches…

As usual, the sibling rivalry continues for Bootylicious and Ton o’ Fun; you can be sure they’ll still be neck and neck at the finish line…

… that’s if anyone can see what’s going on in this light. As if steep slopes and breakneck speeds weren’t scary enough:

Ah, there’s the line – or it was, until Death Machine got there:

On the second run, Quicksilver had a guest driver. Maybe some-one should have showed them how to use the brakes. Or the steering wheel…

Some racers like a sleek, ground-hugging, low-drag aerodynamic body shape to help them down the hill. Some don’t…

It might be from the future and employ hitherto undiscovered technologies somewhere in its fabrication, but The Force is not immune to that curse of the 21^st century – the punctured tyre…

Official results:

1. Kymbo
2. Death Ray
3. Ton 'O' Fun
4. Bootylicious
5. Dmax
6. Death Machine
7. The Force
8. Enterprise
9. Dogmatic
10. Chariot of the Dogs
11. Quicksilver

Check the movie here!

Gratitude as ever to our loyal pit crew, camera-folk and protectors of small fluffy creatures (see the race movie).

Race 24, Grandus Maximus Bitumus

It was awesome!

Race report soon!

Race movie soon!

Race 23, There Goes the Neighbourhood

We sort of put 'Australian' in our name as a joke, figuring why just have a local name when we could claim the whole country? Well, our claim has slightly more justification now as we've attracted our first interstate competitor!

The Other Woman and its pilot and crew travelled the 10+ hours from Queensland just to race with us! And you check it out, that's a pretty impressive cart, a pretty impressive distance and a pretty impressive effort. It was literally the first time out for this cart, so there where naturally some technical difficulties that resulted in a less than stellar official result, but as far as we're all concerned it was obviously the star of the day.
It took a while to get it off the trailer, and things didn't get any better for Obsession, finishing way further down than normal in ninth.
See? No wheels! The Force still found the going pretty bumpy though and floated into a top ten finish.
Doesn't look aerodynamic enough, does it? It wasn't, Dogmatic came in a disappointing eighth.
Quite often it's all or nothing for Death Machine, but this time it finished in a respectable sixth place. Not bad for one of the original carts!
Just proves size isn't everything. Here's Inspiration getting overtaken by a whippet of a cart.
The Chariot of the Dogs took a top five placing, even though it's sometimes dwarfed by the superkarts.
But here it is in turn being overtaken by the superior Enterprise. An impressive effort indeed.
Faced with a big, slow, silver roadblock in front of her at the start, Bootylicious took the only course of action available to her: she rammed it. It was just the boost Quicksilver needed to avoid last place...
And Booty scored some cool battle scars on her way to an impressive third place.
This is the view from Old 47 as he deftly weaves through traffic on his way to second place. It's a big cart and those are some small gaps but years of experience, a nimble mind and speed make all the difference.
In night vision mode we catch a glimpse of Kymbo hurtling to another first place finish. The longer track allowed it to stretch its legs and it was unbothered by the 90˚ corners, still able to retain speed and regather momentum.

Official results:

1. Kymbo
2. Old 47
3. Bootylicious
4. Enterprise
5. Chariot of the Dogs
6. Death Machine
7. Inspiration
8. Dogmatic
9. Obsession
10. The Force
11. Quicksilver
12. The Other Woman

Check the movie here!
As usual, massive thanks to our crew who start us and stop everyone else, even in the dark in the middle of Winter. And to our cane-toad visitors, we salute you! We look forward to travelling north when you're up and running. In the meantime, we'll visit you here.