The collected works of ScottyB

Pole for the 35th N’Ring 24 hour race went to Mantehy Racing with the Porsche GT3 RSR ahead of the Zakspeed Viper.

My home team, the Australian VIP Petfoods 997 911 RSR Porsche has Qualified in 13th with a 9:08.830.

Porsche unsurprisingly occupies the majority of the top 10.

Four RSR’s:
1 - Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of Bernhard Timo, Lieb Marc, Dumas Romain and Tiemann Marcel
3 - Porsche GT3 RSR of Basseng Marc, Hennerici Marc, Adorf Dirk and Stippler Frank
7 - Porsche 997 RSR of Frers Klaus, Bernhardt Patrik, Kaffer Pieré and Hardt Jörg
10 - Porsche 997 RSR of Huisman Patrick, Kaufmann Wolfgang, Rostek Dennis and Konrad Franz

And two modified Caymans:
5 - Porsche Cayman RS of Dr. Beil Stefan, Fischer Norbert, Zils Daniel and Kaffer Pierre
6 - Porsche Cayman of Alzen Jürgen, Alzen Uwe, Menzel Christian and Mamerow Chris

They are joined by:
2 - Dodge Viper GTS-R of Huisman Duncan, Coronel Tom, Simon Patrick and Bouchout Christophe
4 - Aston Martin DBRS 9/8 of Ludwig Klaus, Fässler Marcel, Bert Sascha and Lechner Robert
8 - Lamborghini Gallardo of Tilke Hermann, Adorf Dirk, Oberndorfer Peter and Großmann Markus
9 - BMW Z4 M-Coupe of Hürtgen Claudia, Stuck Hans Joachim, Stuck Johannes and Göransson Richard

An impressive line up.. can see this being an incredible race.

Top 30:

UPDATE: The start of the race has been delayed until further notice due to extremely heavy rains and loads of standing water on the track.

Sounds like they’re getting our weather over there!

Link: Results Database

3 years young today. And I can’t believe it!

3 years of the most enjoyable driving experiences of my life.

3 years of great tarmac explorations and adventures.

3 years of smiles, laughs, new friendships and fun.

3 years of washing, waxing and general mollycoddling!

3 years of brutal insurance bills

Everyone told me I was a nut when I said I wanted a MINI. Everyone told me it was too much debt for a 21 year old. Everyone said I couldn’t do it. I took it because everyone said I couldn’t.

Looking back it was the best decision I could have made. It was all worth it.

3 years Obsession. Happy Third Birthday. To many more!

I went to pick up the paper this morning and took my camera with me.

Just getting to the service station was a task in itself. Many of the major roads around here are either flooded or blocked by fallen trees, so the journey - which would usually take all of ten minutes - took a good half-hour with traffic, detours and re-direction.

Before I even set off, one half of the road up from my house is blocked by fallen trees.

Deciding to head in the other direction, rather than get nearer the bush and potential fallen trees, I proceeded down the main drag towards the Lake.

Since last night, Lake Macquarie has risen 1.09 metres. Over 0.9m more than the regular swell. And the effects are widespread.

The water has clearly been higher than when I was there, I’d imagine that in the early hours of the morning, the water would have been up over the road looking at the silt and rocky deposits right up to - and over - the main road.

Housing subdivisions near the shore have been underwater too.

People were busy out sweeping their driveways and clearing debris from the walkways and drains. Not that they’re going to do much draining at this moment in time anyway. Stranded cars littered the side of the road along the Esplanade, a few people trying to start them up again to no avail.

Heading in the opposite direction was a similar story.

Residents out helping direct traffic around fallen trees and flood areas, cars waiting to cross the only drivable side of the roads.

More trees fallen in sidestreets, more creeks that have busted their banks and spilled rock and soil into the roads. Minor landslides everywhere, banks that haven’t been able to hold under the sheer volume of water running down them.

I visited the boat ramp - most of you who have seen the photos of my MINI will know this boat ramp. Usually its about a metre above the Lake, a cul-de-sac type carpark that opens out to the boat ramp. I’ve pulled the MINI right down to the waters edge before to get photos on beautiful Sunny days and after lesser storms. Today though, I couldn’t even get close to the edge…

Calls have gone out over the radio for people to stay home, to keep roads free for emergency services. I decided it would be best to go home rather than drive around and become another number in the unwanted weekend traffic.

Can still hear the sound of chainsaws everywhere as people struggle to clean up the mess. Hopefully this afternoon’s storm forecast will prove much more minor than expected!

It was a wild old ride last night.

The wind and torrential rain continued into the wee hours of the morning. We’ve had so much rain that most records have been broken over the last 24 hours.

Since yesterday, the 24 hour rain totals in affected areas are as follows:

Wyong - 336mm
Nobby’s Beach - 210mm
Cessnock - 190mm
Wyee - 180mm
Wollombi - 174mm
St. Albans - 166mm
Blacksmiths - 162mm
Maitland - 161mm
Gosford - 153mm
Merriwa - 145mm
Williamtown - 136mm
St. Ives - 131mm
Turramurra - 120mm
Putty - 118mm
Sydney - 112mm

There are trees down everywhere and bits of trees and leaves littering the road everywhere. The storm water drains were all exceeded capacity and the effects are clearly visible this morning. Streets awash with mud and sand, rocks and pieces of concrete. The local bridge is missing sections where the water has washed it away. People with pools nearby the creeks have woken up to a muddy cesspit in their yards. Cars litter the sides of the roads, stranded with water-ingested engines. Bonnets up, hazards on. Scary scene.

The Newspapers are full of images from around the Hunter, a police officer standing in metre deep water at King Street, cars completely under the muddy flood water. The scene was the same across most of the valley, with heavy falls causing localised flash flooding and damage.

The Bureau of Meteorology has given us more bad news that another storm is due in late this afternoon.. so the cleanup is on now, with hopes that all preparations can be made before round two this evening…