Day 11 - Battle Mountain, NV

Driving sweep again today, so I didn't have much opportunity to take photos except at the show'n'tell at the Civic Center at lunchtime.  Of which more anon.  Here is a Story from qualifying yesterday  Georgi Georgiev doesn't like to watch his bikes running flat-out; instead he is one of the best and most fearless catchers in the business.  So here he is, standing in the road and making himself a target for one of the Altair bikes.  The Frenchie comes in a bit fast, the result of which being that Georgi's head enters the bike through the windscreen.  No damage to Georgi, happily.

In the evening runs, I've just pulled into the parking area at catch when I spy Jan-Marcel sitting on the ground having his head bandaged.  By the time I've gone over to make concerned enquiries he has got up and turned round; thus I can now see that his face, arms and hands are positively dripping with blood.  Fearing the worst for both J-M and the bike, I ask what has happened.  It turns out that, anxious for a quick turnaround, he has helped throw the Cygnus into the back of their SUV and stood upright rapidly.  Thereby bringing his bonce into swift conjunction with the pointy corner of the tailgate.

Out to the course at late.  Alarm clock fail.  No shower, no coffee.  Arses.  The only major incident happened to James Schroeder in the Firefly camera trike.  They'd been suffering from a vibration through the steering so this time James tried to power through and away the other side.  This did not have the desired effect, no, instead it took out both his camera systems.  Blind, he perforce ran off the road and did some considerable damage to the machine though he's unhurt.  "I'm sure glad Don put that Kevlar in for this year" said his mum.  Will Hilgenberg dropped the chain on Gemini but was able to turn into Badger Ranch Road, where he was caught by a surprised Eric Ware.  I told Will that this was just showing off.

As before, today's results are not yet online and I can't be bothered to go down to the conference room to see if they've been posted there yet, andI don't remember much.  Yesterday's results are on the main WHPSC site, though the formatting will make your brane hurt unless Warren has fixed it.  Toronto's new bike Bluenose made a couple of slow qualifying runs, which made everyone immediately suspicious of its cable-actuated remote steering.  However the bike redeemed itself with a 50+ run, Todd Reichert at the controls.

Bluenose at the Civic Center

Back into town for the riders' meeting and the show'n'tell.  Plan A: attend meeting, return to motel for shower then back to Civic Center.  Fails as the 11:00 meeting does not start until 11:40 chiz.  Mill around the room with screaming feet, taking the odd photo.  Where are the Tinies?  "Arriving at 12:30" says Mikey Sova, "with lunch at 13:30".  Plan B comes into operation viz. return to motel, have shower, lie down until Luncheon is Served.  Better idea all round.

Further lying down follows until it's party time once more.  Again we're running three groups of riders even though chief starter Chris Broome doesn't like it. It had been flat calm down in catch at 17:00 so obviously this wasn't going to last.  The only person from either of the first two groups to make a run with legal wind was Ben in Nitro, tripping the switches at 66.6 mph.  But everyone was legal, and fast, in the third group.  Highlights included Jan-Marcel recovering from his biff on the nut to become the fourth fastest rider evvah, with a run at over 77 mph, and Gareth hitting more than 69 mph for a new unofficial trike record.  But the stars of the night were Tom Amick and Phil Plath who, on Tom's birthday, pushed the tandem record above 70 mph.  You've probably seen enough pictures of Glowworm and it takes ages to insert a picture into the Automatic Diary and it's quarter to eleven at night here.  So I won't.

Postscript:  I have just stumbled across Thom Ollinger fettling his steed OB-Wan-Kenobi (the "OB" is short for "Ollinger Brothers") in the corridor.  Which is a bit odd as I believe he's staying at the Big Chief down the road.

Thom Ollinger indulges in some late-night debauchery