Day 16: Battle Mountain NV

"Damn and blast the Nevada weather!" shouted Mr Larrington, the words coming easily from force of habit.  More than halfway through the week and things have been a bit of a letdown, mostly because of the weather.  Thus today we ran the on the five mile course first because, as any fule kno, the wind gets, er, windier the later it gets.  The wind, fickle and capricious wossname that she be, had other ideas, however, and you can probably guess the rest.

The weather doth bring mud and gravel out of the paddock and onto the road...

On the plus side, Isaac Chung in Bluenose managed to get a decent qualifying run in that will allow him to run on the long course later in the event, as did Shinsuke Kouzai in Super Ketta Machine 162.  Both managed to crash quite spectacularly afterwards, though.  Apparently Isaac was changing down the gears and speared off the road just before catch.  "No", said long-suffering Captain Calvin, "just leave them alone!".  Shinsuke-san locked his brakes and performed a lengthy skating routine through the catchers, leaving them scattering like a flock of surprised hi-viz sheep, before heading for the brush once again, but his 67.17 mph pass was the fastest legal wind run on the short course thus far.  Barbara finally managed to get the new Varna to go where she intended and clocked a respectable 65.8 mph.

Barbara brings the Varna into catch

Barclay Henry steadies the bike while Barbara exits

From my position following their chase vehicle, it looked as though Charles Easton-Berry in MQ1 was going to do likewise, with a scary-looking wobble as he poured on the coals near timing, but he kept it rubber-side down.  Also disappointed was Arnold "Leadfoot" Ligtvoet, who took over sweep car duties for heat two.  His shiny Mercedes would only reach 135 mph¹.

Danny Guthrie takes a break from the timing table to observe launch distances

Collared the Liverpool catch team after Yasmin's 65 mph run.  "Rubbing or burning smell this time ha ha?" I asked, incorrigible japester that I be.  "Both!" came the chorus.  Oh.  With this in mind, Ken elected not to run this morning.

Barbara may have Done Good with the new bike, but she still needed to qualify the old Tempest as a backup.  A frustrating series of false starts ensued and you don't need to speak French to understand the gist of the disembodied Angry Noises emanating from the cockpit.  The De La Salle team attempted to run both their machines today but the white one pulled up with some unknown malady while the red was so slow that we had to pull them off as we needed to re-open the road.  The Ford ASBO will do 10 mph in "D" with the engine idling and I was obliged to brake to avoid overrunning their chase car.  There is much to be said for learning from other people's hard-won experience.

The second Mexican machine - very pretty, very very slow

Nik Vatin's Black Helicopter² proved invaluable in tracking the Mexican bikes

Calvin and Aniek were once again the front runners, though both their runs were too windy, with Ellen and Iris both doing wind-legal 68s.  Shout-out to Mike "Statto" Mowett for qualifying the veteran "Chuck Norush" that did 57 mph here fifteen years ago with Rob Wood at the helm, with a 49.78 mph run.

Multinational taping team deals with Chuck Norush³

Jamie Guthrie⁴ about to launch an Adam Ince unconcerned by the fact of someone having robbed one of his back wheels

Back to town, wrap-up meeting, Super 8, upload photos ect ect.  Phone rings.  'tis Nice Lady in reception.  "It is raining," said she, "and your car is getting wet!"  For Lo! Idiot Boy has left the roof down, because it was warm and sunny when he parked it.  Two thumbs up to John Jackson for getting a tarp over the cockpit in time to keep out the worst of it.  After which the damp had got into the Super 8's Intertubes, or something.  So I went to sleep, perchance to dream of ["Removed after taking legal advice" - Ed.]

Out to 305 for the evening.  It's blowing a hooley again in town.  Out on the course it's flat calm, until it isn't.  And then it is again.  There is Weather to be seen on all sides but we are hopeful that it will pass to our south.

It didn't.  Game over.  Bugger.

This came out to play, and brought its horrible mates with it

If I am right, you will not require a Farcebok account to view the onboard video from MQ1's run the other day, which is worth the price of admission just for Larry Lem's Save of Awesomeness.  It may be found here: https://www.facebook.com/MQSpeedTeam/videos/1619997181394283/  If I am not right then someone will have to petition the Aussies to put it on YouTube.

1. Points.  Laughs.
2. ["TANBH" - Ed.]
3. Name courtesy of the clowns and Western Half-Devil Monster Faces of Team Cygnus
4. AKA "The Future Mrs Ince"