Illawarra Run to 30th Anniversary of the MX-5
14 February 2019 / Words: Jill Feutrill; Photos: Chrissie & John Zaremba
Saturday 9th February 2019 dawned as a perfect day to take a run in our MX-5.
The run officially started at Haywards Bay but some people chose to meet for morning tea at Moonacres Café at Robertson where the Chapter was holding the monthly Mazdas in the Mist – no mist today however. As usual the place was full of MX-5 aficionados and following an informative and entertaining briefing by our run leaders Jeff and Pam Rowe (Jeff’s Sat nav) 20 cars set off for the run to Taralga.
We travelled over familiar ground through Moss Vale (where we certainly turned some heads) and Goulburn to Tangled Vines Café at Taralga where we were warmly welcomed and many lunch orders were taken. It seemed that the town had ‘turned out’ to look at our cars and have a chat with us - country hospitality indeed. The number of dishes was always going to be a challenge for the café, but no-one minded waiting as it gave further opportunities to chat with friends old and new and to explore the nearby ‘main street’. Taralga certainly has some beautiful historic buildings.
After being sufficiently topped up we headed off towards Oberon on the Abercrombie Road. This is a great drive especially in a sports car and we took advantage of the fact that there were not very many cars to delay our progress. Jeff’s ‘sat nav’ did a great job of alerting us to what was coming up.
We turned at Oberon and headed through O’Connell to Bathurst. It was great to see the Mount Panorama Sign up on the Mountain and the anticipation of the thrill of being on the "track" with many MX-5s tomorrow.
Well after entering Bathurst our intrepid run leader took a wrong turn or 3. (We certainly wouldn’t mark him down for this) The phones came out and Mr Google got us to the Governor Macquarie Motel, where lo and behold the place was full of MX-5s! For some the lure of the mountain was too much to wait, so off they went for a gentle lap or two.
It was great that we had a meeting room for pre-dinner drinks, nibble and chats with like minded people. If the noise level in the room was any indication there was no shortage of good fun conversations taking place. Always good to catch up with people from the various chapters.
Jeff had organised a mini bus to take those of us who preferred not to walk to Panthers leagues Club for dinner. The conversations over dinner continued in the usual jovial manner – perhaps getting more jovial as the evening went on. After a good meal we returned to the motel by bus – although some walkers chose to go via Maccas for a late dessert. Some ‘kicked on’ for a yet further chat (e.g. room 1) whilst others hit the hay.
Sunday morning was just perfect. Even though the temperature might have only been 10 degrees it wasn’t cold. People were up bright and early and cars were being debugged and cleaned and following breakfast Jeff took to the portable PA system (great purchase by the club) to give us his usual excellent briefing on what to expect when we arrived up on the mountain.
When we arrived at McPhillamy Park we were early, so many took the opportunity to do a few (60kph) laps, then back to be organised into lines of models by Michael and his helpers. It was simply amazing to see the cars all lined up and the breakdown is provided on the club web site – the count being 142 MX-5s on the track at the same time!
Photos were taken of the NAs in their original 9 colours with us all standing behind them, then off we went for what could be the slowest 2 laps of the track. Photos aplenty were taken as we ‘zoomed’ past.
Then it was off to the RSL for lunch – the room was full – seemed like there were 300 people there. Unfortunately, we picked a table that turned out to be at the wrong end of the queue – so thanks to those people who dropped off a bread roll as they went by to pick up their meals as they could see us wasting away.
After lunch there was a game of heads and tails which raised over $600 for our charity Careflight. Also Lesa Bunn (Vice President) presented Stephen Carter with Life Membership.
On the homewood run we went via Tuena and Crookwell which is another excellent MX-5 road.
Many thanks to Jeff and Pam Rowe for excellent organisation over the weekend.
Oh - and not to forget Happy 30th Birthday MX-5! Let’s see how many NAs we have at the 60th.
