UPDATE....to add to the 4400klm we ended up driving across the country, I am about to ride 111klm on my pushie from Geelong and along the Great Ocean Road Saturday January 30th 2015 as part of the Cadel Evans Momentum Peoples Ride. I am looking to complete the original Race Across The Nullabor fundraising target for Cure Cancer Australia in the process...on 2 wheels and hopefully under 4.5 hours. If you can help, with donations for this worthy cause, starting from as little as $2, that would be fantastic! To donate click on the link and type in the amount of your donation in the 'other' field if the preset amount aren't what you are looking for.
Read on for the original story and inspiration behind this fundraising effort...
I am aiming to raise money for Cure Cancer Australia Foundation by driving 3950 kilometres from Perth to Sydney in 4 days in a 36 year old classic car and I would welcome any contribution, great or small, that you could make!
The car is a 1978 Porsche 911 SC, now known as the Black Gnome. Do you remember the fad of people taking Gnomes on holidays and sending photos of them having a wonderful time? SC normally stands for Super Carrera, but in this case it stands for Stop Cancer.I have always had a soft spot for the old classic Porsche models. A 356B was the car that my Mum went to hospital in when I was born and the car that bought me home. The idea for the fundraiser came about when my old friend from school David and I decided to drive a classic car across Australia. When I met John in Perth to test drive the car, he mentioned that he was recovering from bowel cancer. Both my Mum and my Dad are also cancer survivors, along with a growing number of my friends. I decided that if we are going to make the epic journey across the Nullabor from Perth to Sydney, we should not waste the opportunity to do something positive for those in our community who are faced with dealing with cancer. Enter the Blue Gnome, the fundraising mascot that spent the trip rocketing from side to side across the dash. This represents the fundraising team effort. The race is a race between the car and the fundrasing team.
The race started on Thursday morning, October 9th in Perth and we planed to reach the finish line in Sydney before 3pm Sunday the 12th of October. There were no support vehicles and only David and I to drive the car. The car was given the green light by Andy Stack of Rennsport in Perth. It is a very basic vehicle and doesn't have any mod cons - no ABS, no power steering and no air conditioning! The finish line was the Porsche Club of NSW Concourse being held at Sydney Olympic Park, The Armery, Jamieson Street Homebush Bay. That was the plan!
We had a mechanical issue that forced us to divert 500klm to Adelaide. This happened on the Saturday and we arrived in Adelaide around 5pm. Sunday was the Bathurst V8 race, so the city was depleted of Porsche mechanics supporting the Carrera cup in Bathurst. We finally found Tom Sutton-Smith who very generously allowed us to put the car on a hoist to find that a single bolt had been lost, which he duly replaced and sent us on our way...Tom also donated to the charity, thanks Tom!
The final drive was 4400klm in 5 days. The biggest day was 1231klm from Norseman in WA to Ceduna in SA.
Despite 1st place having been secured, the fundraising effort continues until it hits the original target of $3950, which represents $1 for every klm of the original race plan.
I truly believe that we can stop cancer. Diagnosis and treatments today are getting better all the time, but we still have a long way to go. Please support my efforts by making a secure donation and help me raise money for this great cause. I would welcome any contribution, great or small, that you could make!
I would also really appreciate it if you could share my page above or comment below so more people know about it. You can also see the latest updates including photos, videos and posts on our Race Across The Nullabor Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/RaceAcrossThe Nullabor.
Click 'Donate Now' to make a secure online donation. All donations over $2 are tax deductible and you will be issued with a DGR receipt via email as soon as you make a donation.