Here is a tip for anyone traveling to Australia. When you land, add a day to the day after you leave the U.S.

I found this out after walking around the first day thinking I was there on Thursday and this day was in preparation for Friday. It wasn’t until late in the day on Saturday before I discovered, the professional cars weren’t qualifying on Friday. Friday had come and gone.

If I had investigated a little better, well … a lot better, I would have realized during the course of the flight I flew over the end of Thursday and into the start of Friday via the International Date Line.

PART 1: MAKING THE TRIP
PART 2: HANGING WITH VICTOR BRAY
PART 3: THERE'S A YANKEE [AMERICAN] IN THE WILLOWBANK PITS

Here is a tip for anyone traveling to Australia. When you land, add a day to the day after you leave the U.S.

I found this out after walking around the first day thinking I was there on Thursday and this day was in preparation for Friday. It wasn’t until late in the day on Saturday before I discovered, the professional cars weren’t qualifying on Friday. Friday had come and gone.

If I had investigated a little better, well … a lot better, I would have realized during the course of the flight I flew over the end of Thursday and into the start of Friday via the International Date Line.

When I realized the day was Saturday, immediately I wondered where Thursday went because I left on Wednesday. I finally drew the conclusion that I hadn’t lost a day like that since a Super Bowl in the early 1990s when I showed up on a Sunday night and didn’t wake up until Tuesday.

The first day, after a trip to Victor bray’s farm and a ride through the field in the rental car chasing kangaroos, we headed to Willowbank Raceway outside of Brisbane, the host of the Castrol Edge Winternationals.

I took in a couple of sportsman sessions and met some interesting blokes namely ANDRA PR director Brenton Edwards and the talented Lex Swayne, editor of Aussie publication The Elapsed Times.

I walked around Willowbank meeting and greeting all and I held strong for about an hour or two before  my stamina tank ran out of gas. I fell quickly into walking dead mode.

I reached my hotel, Ipswitch International, at Noon where I unloaded my gear and collapsed on the bed. Five hours later, and a full night’s sleep, I woke up at 5 PM and ready to go to the races.

My first dose of reality once I woke up was in trying to plug in my laptop only to realize my plug-in wasn’t compatible with the wall sockets. Then I spent the better part of ten minutes trying to figure out how to turn on the lights. I flipped the switch and nothing happened. Finally, I realized there is an apparatus where you have to insert your car and it serves as the “battery” for the lights.

I called down to the front desk who informed me that they didn’t have an adapter for my plug but if I wanted to walk five blocks, there was an electronics store with the device I needed. Taking directions, in a foreign country, with only 30 minutes to find it, incredibly I arrived with five minutes to spare.

What you will see in this video diary is my Saturday visit to Willowbank Raceway. In this one day, I managed to pull off another installment of this diary, four video features and a notebook.