Heya guys,
Thanks so much for all the well-wishes and positivity; it was certainly all worth it!
Sorry I've been a bit quiet here on the forum since the Nats came and went; I've just been THAT busy!
SERIOUSLY!
Although this event had been, in essence, in the planning for four years (ie since the last Adelaide Nats in 2009), there were several factors that complicated things...
1) since the event was confirmed, my wife got pregnant and had a son who was born two years ago effective of 29 September, so we not only had him to wrangle, but it was his birthday in the middle of it, too!
2) since the event was confirmed, we had no less than three Nats since with each one raising the bar higher and higher. The job isn't to out-do the last event, but when people like Gary and Monnica put on such a smashing event in 2012, it's hard not to compare... and be nervous
3) in the week prior to the Nats, I was told we'd have a team leader conference; this not only knocked out a couple of evenings we'd set aside to do last minute stuff, it bloody knocked out a couple of days where I was supposed to be doing work-work, not conference-work! I had a presentation to do and although it was a team effort, I volunteered to do the Powerpoint Presentation... and spent my entire weekend before the Nats doing it!
4) I've been lucky enough to score a gig doing a couple of articles for a large, well known car magazine... and of course I had an article due a few days after the Nats finished... It's done now, but it's one of the reasons I haven't been back here quickly!
Anyway, my plan tonite is to put up the pics I took. I didn't think I took that many, but apparently I did.
Oh yeah, there were a couple of clusterf*cks you didn't notice... when I went to the butcher and said, "You got an order for Dave?"
"Nah mate"
"Sarah?"
"Nah mate"
"Bellett Nationals?"
"Nah mate"
"You sure? My wife put an order in the other day, for today"
"You Electra-lock Packaging?"
"No!"
"Well then I've got nothing"
.... argh... So I rang my wife... with literally, and I mean this, 1% battery power on the phone (or maybe I borrowed Bruno's I can't remember) and she said, "Yeah, I spoke to John and said I want the same stuff that Shannons has" (we use the same butcher for our BBQs at work; that's why I knew they were good).
So I go back there... "You got a John here?"
"Yeah, me"
"Well my wife spoke to you and put an order in, so we've got a problem"
"I've got an order here for Shannons"
ARGH. OK so they got their wires crossed there, but at least our bloody meat was there!
Ross had problems too; some of you may remember the awesome aerial pics we took using a GO-PRO and a remote-controlled drone helicopter back in April at the same winery (there were Mustangs)? Yeah well that was supposed to happen, but magically, ALL THREE of Ross' batteries died in the arse...
Speaking of GO-PROS, there was another little one, but it wouldn't have affected you guys. I borrowed a GO-PRO from a guy at work. He told me how to work it; they're pretty simple as they only have two buttons.
The mount he had was fairly basic and I couldn't put it on the rear window of the Wasp at the angle it allowed, so George aka "Flying" was good enough to hold the camera for 20 mins or so to get some footage... but all the bloody camera did was take a photo, then do nothing else! Sorry George!
Anyway, it's my plan to put some pics up now, in a different post...
Thanks again; I'm glad everyone enjoyed themselves and I'd like to say... hacking down Cross Road to see the Queenslanders off was all worth it when Greg and Liz came flying up behind me and we gassed it thru the tunnel... then blasted either side of that numpty in the Honda CRV. It was music to my ears!
Here's a pic:

- 08 - South Eastern Freeway - Greg and Liz - Bellett GT - edit.JPG (141.35 KiB) Viewed 45697 times
Looking forward to seeing you all next year! Thanks again!
Oh PS - if you're awaiting apparel, we are convening tomorrow night to see what we need to post and who we need to harass for postage; apologies for the delay; see previous parts of post if you would like to read some lame excuses.
Cheers,
Dave and on behalf of the rest of the guys