Once upon a time there was a R32 GTR that wanted to conquer a mountain. Seems this GTR was getting a taste for the Mountain Sprints, The fresh clean cold air, the twisting road up through the lush green rainforests. The GTR had locked himself in for yet another journey up a magic mountain with his friends. So with his bags packed and tightly settled on the trailer we set off to begin the journey.

The GTR was the leader of the pack and trailing behind him was his friends Mr & Mrs Crowe in the Black HSV. Chris likes to think of himself as a bit of a pirate and has nicknamed the HSV “Black Pearl” I think it’s quite catchy but the cute RX7 driven by Patrick thought it was hilarious and had started picking on him already and we weren’t even there yet! So with the 3 musketeers ready we set off to pick up another car on the way. We had a “Darkside” join us half way through the journey the very well set up Mitsubishi EVO 9 driven by Rob and Josh Lindner.

The Lake Mountain district had been touched by fire and wasn’t looking the best at all a year on. The community was glad to have us there and welcomed us with opened arms. I hadn’t seen such devastation in such a long time. But enough of the dreaded stuff lets get back to the “little GTR that could!”
We all sign on and got scrutineered with out a problem. Was a shame to see that the competition was down from Mt Buller in December with only 41 entered for the Lake Mountain Sprint. The GTR wanted to check out the course so we took him for a lap up the mountain to check notes and see how the road felt under his brand new shoes! The view from the road was so blacken and mysterious all the tress were like skeletons standing in the breeze due to half of the forest not having grown back yet from the fires.. This road wasn’t as long as Mt Buller being only 9km’s but was still going to be an adventure in itself. The sky was very dark and we had done the run up the hill when we decided to turn around and go back down when the heavens decided to open up and the rain came bucketing down. There was a flood on the road in the matter of a minute and was hard to see. That’s when the GTR decided it didn’t want to go down the road anymore and just completely stopped. We had lost all power and he didn’t want to turn back on. Craig got out in the pouring rain and found that the fuse had blown and there was an electrical problem somewhere. We loaded the GTR back onto the trailer and took him to his cabin. All the boys gathered around to see if they could figure out what had happened to the GTR and make him work again. They discussed and looked and couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary. The GTR was playing games!

We started to worry that we would be out of the competition before we even got to start!
Chris advised that it was best to take the GTR to a mechanic in Melbourne to see if they could fix him. Craig set off to get the GTR fixed and we missed all the morning runs up the mountain. The mechanics couldn’t find the problem either but took the thermo fans off the main electrical circuit and the GTR came back to life. Craig got back at lunch time and we were ready to conquer the mountain. The officials lined us up and we were going to be the 2nd car out to go up the mountain. The way the sprint is run is the slowest cars go up the mountain first and the fastest cars last in 30 second intervals apart from each other. I didn’t think of it at the time but it wasn’t the best idea to go behind that car! As the GTR is in the 9 second club and usually one of the last cars to go up the hill with all the big kids at the back of the line! The blue GT falcon lined up at the start line got his count down and he was off in a tyre blazing way. We stepped up next, Craig brought the revs up and I counted down 5,4,3,2,1…..GO! We launched off the start line to go into our first corner the 4 Left, followed by 9Right into 3 Left and 6 Right. We were flying up the road, I was calling the notes right, Craig was driving the doors off the GTR and he was having a ball until we got ¾ the way up the stage when I saw the blue GT Falcon up ahead “Oh no we had caught him!!”. Well silly me panicked and could see Craig wanted to overtake. I wasn’t sure if I should keep calling the notes, so I went silent to let Craig concentrate and get around the car without someone nagging in his ear. It all happened so fast and you don’t realise that you have gone through 4 corners and 5 calls. We got past the Blue GT Falcon but I had left it too late to call the serious note!

We were coming around a 7 Right way to fast to slow down for the 5 Right into the car park. I called the note but it was too late! Craig made the quick decision to stay straight and I couldn’t believe my eyes there before me was a Road Barrier!! It was getting closer and the GTR just wasn’t stopping in time…We went through the barrier!!! All I saw was the yellow and black beam come up over the bonnet and fly up and away into the air. We stopped just past the barrier I was so angry with myself that I had let Craig down and hurt the little GTR. Craig asked if I was ok and I said “Yep” we had lost about 15 seconds with that fiasco and set off up the road to finish the stage. We got through the finish line and I didn’t want to get out of the car to see what damage I had caused. I kept apologising to the little GTR. Craig kept telling me that there was hardly any damage and it will all buff out. It was only minor scrapes and a little dent on the top of the front right guard that I apparently have to sign! haha
The rest of the runs up the mountain where a lot better for us and we didn’t have any issues with the car except for the last run when the GTR decided he wanted to have some fun and went into 2WD mode so all the power was going to the rear tyres and…WHAT A RIDE! It was getting so sidewayz through some corners and I loved every minute of it. Couldn’t believe when we had finished the stage that it was our quickest time up the track with a 4:47. The fastest time up the mountain was put down by the White’s Lamborghini with a 4:20 and that was in the wet/damp mind you! They were closely followed by Jones & Searcy R35 GTR with a 4:21.

The competition was fierce within our own crowd too with the Crowes doing a 4:49 and the HSV was hot stuff to contend with as it’s an absolute weapon of a car and bit of a handful! Bourke & Woods in the Red RX7 did a 4:52 and it was going so well until they experience a problem and couldn’t continue for the rest of the afternoon. Spada & Condon did a 4:59 and I was very happy to see the EVO in full flight after the ordeal they have experienced in the month leading up to the sprint. We all came 3rd in our respected class too.
So with another tarmac sprint done and dusted….stay tuned for more epic adventures from the Awesome Tarmac Crew!