Day 25: Battle Mountain NV

The news over here is dominated by Hurricane Florence, currently pounding the Carolinas.  "450,000 without power in NC!" they yelled.  "I bet it won't take a year for them to get the power back on!" retorted more than one person who, in all likelihood, were not registered Republicans.  Florence has been downgraded from Category 4 to Category 1.  "Hurricane Florence Henderson!" said an unimpressed Frank Lem.  Well, I thought it was quite good for 05:30 on a Friday...

I'm back on chase duties today as Garrie has returned from his sojourn in the fleshpots of Reno, bringing a (bikeless) Natasha Morrison with him.  Natasha was supposed to be chasing unfaired sprint records on Garrie's new bike, yclept "Bob", but shortly before the event Bob fell in a hole and broke.  It seems like a long way to come for a day and a half of spectating.  In the first heat I'm in the chase truck with Dave and Ginny Ince, following #1 son Adam in his ongoing quest for an official Hat.  With the wind this morning being much more user-friendly, it is heartening to report that Adam and Half-Fast achieved their goal with a 51.42 mph run.  I couldn't get a picture of Adam from the chase truck, alas, as it bounced a bit too much.

A quick turnaround to get backup to the start for the second heat, this time behind Valina Sintalova in Bluenose.  She made a smooth launch and made it down the course for a 50.89 mph pass, albeit looking a bit wobbly in the middle of the five miles.  Ahead of us Fabien Canal put in another storming run with 79.48 mph in Altaïr 6, making the pre-event pundits look a bit foolish in their our predictions that the race for the top spot would be between Calvin and Andrea, with Matthias as a dark horse.

Calvin releases Valina.  Full start sequence on the Flickr page for today.

Valina and Bluenose approach he 2.5 mile marker

Back for round three, and this time I'm in someone else's Shitbox Dodge; Team Policumbent's grey example following Andrea.  Both bikes in this heat suffered derailed chains but while Taurus had it happen as Andrea was slowing down after his too-windy 80.16 mph, the luckless Calvin had Eta Prime chuck it off right at the start.  He's running out of time to get that coveted 80 mph Hat...

Professional badge on Team Policumbent's Shitbox Dodge

Taurus approaches Filippini Ranch road a mile from the start.  Use your Junior Pocket Miscroscope (Model 3a) to spot "Battle Mountain Mike" on traffic duty on the left.

For the fourth heat it's the turn of Team Elan's Shitbox Dodge, following VeloX XS with Matthias at the controls.  He also looked a bit wobbly when really pouring on the coals (as directed by Hans van Vugt over the radio) but put in his best run of the week at 77.39 mph.  Behind us was Jennifer Breet in VeloX 8; while Calvin has had the mechanical issues, she's had the wind conspiring against her and yet again didn't get a legal run.

Matthias hard on the brakes approaching catch.  Catch virtuoso Barclay Henry on  the right of the line.

Matthias being Not Dead

The audience reckoned that if Matthias is capable of both walking unaided and making jokes in a FOREIGN language after his run, he's not trying hard enough...

After the final runners on the full course in heats 3 and 4 had gone through, the Liverpool team ran both Ken and Karen in the 600/200m discipline.  Start from Badger Ranch Road and go flat-out for the 800 metres to the end of the timing traps.  Ken's 33.81 and Karen's 30.30 mph runs were both new World Records.  I think there may well be a party in their HQ on Saturday night.

Ken Talbot in ARION 4 after setting his second World Record of the week

At the debrief, Alice Krause spilt a large cup of water all over the stage.  Fortunately we know a Man with a Mop:

Steve the Scouser finds his métier

Just back from the evening session and, praise be, Canadian-purchased "Orange Pekoe" Yorkshire Tea is the same stuff you get from Mr Sainsbury's House of Toothy Comestibles.  That's about the only good thing about tonight.  The wind dropped to bugger-all at one point, but unfortunately not while any bikes were on the road.  Only Calvin and Ken made wind-legal runs; Calvin decked at catch again and some mechanical derangement inside ARION 4 was causing the front tyre to rub the top of the fairing, filling the interior with little bits of rubber and limiting Ken - in spite of record power output - to 36.73 mph.  Valina went down somewhere on the course, Fabien pulled up because of the wind and toppled over before the team could get out of the van and catch him and Matthias elected not even to bother starting.  Valina's crash lead to Karen in ARION 4 having to take evasive action to get round the personnel trying to get Bluenose off the road.  Not helped by her main video screen choosing this moment to blank out.  Terrible issues with the radios issued to the officials posted in each chase vehicle compounded the mess.  Andrea and Calvin were the fastest runners, but 78.11 and 78.12 mph respectively fell a bit short of expectations chiz.

Renée Cantori and Peter Borenstadt tape up Greg Cantori in the Milan SL

Volunteers keep the sun off Ishtey Amminger before launch.  Brother and launch pusher Will just visible on the right.

Steve Nash looks on as Team Policumbent slide the nose onto Taurus

Weather forecast for tomorrow morning is for the most favourable wind conditions of the week, but they're for the Battle Mountain airport¹, a Several of miles away from the course.  And we know from bitter experience that conditions can change a lot in between here and there.

Also I have to refill the windscreen washer bottle on That Shitbox Dodge, which is at least better than the Arnstang, which needs regular doses of fresh air in a slowly-deflating tyre.

1: While even the most rudimentary landing grounds in Leftpondia are routinely referred to as an "airport", the runway here is long enough to land Air Force One on, because it once did just that, with Bill Clinton on board.