It was speedway night last night. After missing two meetings last weekend (Goulburn and Nowra both rained-off) it was good to have a lovely, sunny Autumn day and the chance to get back to the track. It was the NSW Championship meeting for speedcars and over 20 drivers had nominated so it was going to be a big one.
Being Easter weekend as well meant that the traffic south was going to be an issue so I left a little earlier than usual and I am glad that I did. It wasn’t anywhere as bad as it had been during the Christmas break but it wasn’t great so I took my time (double demerits weekend) and just tootled. I was glad of my prescription sunglasses as it was quite glarey heading down.
However, when I got to the track and unpacked my stuff and opened my glasses case to put on my normal distance glasses, I was horrified to see that they weren’t there. Instead the case contained my reading glasses, useful for close-up work only and totally unsuited to trying to commentate 24 races going in to the night. I tried the prescription sunglasses once the sun went down but they were no help at all. So, I had to try and call the meeting using my reading glasses.
For the divisions that normally race at Nowra, this wasn’t quite as difficult as it may seem. I know most cars by colour and appearance and, apart from a couple of new 1600cc cars, that class was OK. Likewise the Dwarf Cars and the compact speedcars, all of which are familiar to me. But the speedcars have only raced at Nowra twice this season and even a diligent patrol around the pits, trying to absorb colour, number and driver combinations wasn’t going to adequately prepare me for the most important races on the card.
Thankfully, my extra diligent assistant and timekeeper, Louise, was my eyes for the night, helping me with numbers and making up for my lack of vision as best she could. Between the two of us we managed to get through, but not without making some monumental blunders along the way (like calling Mitch Brien in a dark blue car, Rod Francis, for the whole of one of the heat races. (In my defence, Rod was also driving a dark blue car and the two drivers were numbers 53 and 63 respectively)
However, all through the night I was worrying about what I was going to do when the time came to drive home. It’s 75 kms from my place to the track and driving in sunglasses at night is not recommended. However, driving in reading glasses isn’t either so I chose the lesser of the two evils. Feeling a little like the Blues Brothers, I pointed north hoping it would be OK. Surprisingly, once I got out of town, my eyes acclimatised to the sunglasses and I was able to get home safely (though slowly). One of the first things that I did this morning (after the boys had been here from breakfast and Easter eggs, was go and put an old pair of my glasses in the glove box of the car in case I did the same stupid thing again. I don’t think I will, but, it’s me, so you never know.