We arrived in Ballarat on Friday evening and surprisingly the weather looked good. The forecast for the weekend was 21 and sunny. On Saturday we woke up at the crack of dawn had a quick cigarette and coffee then jumped in the car with my brother-in-laws Uncle George cousins Thomas and Tolly and headed off to Ballarat for the 11th GT Nationals.

Approximately 1 hour on the freeway we arrived in Ballarat. I received a call from Dimi who instructed me to follow my way through Sturt St where we met up. We headed off to the showground where pure muscle heaven awaits. Almost every colour from XR to BA was polished and waxed to perfection. Nearby trade stands selling choice merchandise such as hats, shirts, bags, stickers and other GT paraphernalia. A jumping castle where kids could burn themselves out looked very busy. FPV and Herrod Motorsport also displayed the latest stuff.

So off we started at the XB/XA and RPO section, with some very impressive examples on display. Moving through to the XY’s and the ultimate XY GT Phase III’s where this was the most congregated assortment that I have ever seen in one place. There seemed to be at least 6 or 7 yellow ochre XY’s lined up in perfect formation. Rohan and Spiro’s Phase III’s looked immaculate and it was hard to pick a favourite.

Then we headed back towards the front entrance to the XW’s. Some of the best XW phase II cars were present with Julio’s silver fox and a unrestored Brambles red leading the way. An old fellah by the name of Nick had his original and unrestored reef green XW GT complete with 30+ years of battle scars. The car was ordered with deleted stripes, hood blackouts, pins and check cloth inserts. The car was in a time warp and the old guy preferred to drive the old Henry over his new Peugeot Turbo.

We bumped into Dave Shaw who told us that he just finished looking and snapping photos of the XW’s. At this rate he was due to finish the complete circuit by midnight. Paul ran into “The Fox” who was standing proud next to his beautiful number 033 silver fox XW GT. “The Fox” seemed pumped and was eagerly awaiting Sundays drag racing activities.

We looked over the XT GT area where we saw some fantastic Windsor powered Fords. Phil Chenney’s XT really looked the part. Next we were off to see the XR GT’s where Wato’s 3 beauty’s were on display. At this stage judging was over so a lot of the competitors looked relaxed. Plenty of money/offers were talked about and it is very interesting to see if any vehicles change hands over the next few weeks.

At approximately 4pm engines started kicking over and headed for the exit. A large crowd built up watching the beasts leave. Some found it hard to resist the urge to lay some rubber however there was a few exceptions. Greg and Sundeep left the showground with a light haze of smoke coming off the rear tyres. Candy was running on a new AN Racing combo with new pipes complements of Rip. Gee’s the car sounded awesome as did most.

Off we headed back home to Uncle George’s house. We had some dinner and recapped some of the cars and events of the day then off to sleep.

Again we woke up at the crack of dawn heading down to Ballarat. This time the destination was the airport with the promise of big burnouts and big revs. Leading the way was “Wato” and “Fox” who where crowd pleasers with the biggest burnouts. The little 289CI powered Windsor was turning well over 8000RPM and sounded awesome. Wato looked like a very experienced campaigner at this drag racing caper. It was a fantastic sight to see the XR GT stand up. Whilst darting down the eighth mile we could see Wato shifting the cogs. Paul saw “The Fox” who had the biggest smile on his face. He was having an absolute ball driving the wheels off his XW GT and was stoked to pip a big block coupe through the traps.

At 12:30 it was time to say goodbye to all and headed off to the airport to catch our flight. The organisers of this event should be commended for putting on a fantastic show. This was indeed a great trip and I look forward to attending the next GT Nationals.

We managed to snap over 200 pictures at this event. Look and enjoy as much as we did. Till next time see ya later. Remember “Going Ford is the going thing” Nick.