Day 5: Battle Mountain NV

 Alarm went off at 05:30 urgh würg kotz.  And then out to the course for the first set of qualifying runs on the 2.5 mile course, starting at 07:15.  Minus a Several of teams, viz. Liverpool (machine not ready) and Cal Poly (machine locked in Civic Center).  As things turned out Toronto didn't get to run either because Reasons, while Ellen van Vugt had to pull up a mile and a half into her run with video issues and Adam Hari suffered from lack of practice due to his machine having spent the year in a storage room at the Big Chief motel and couldn't get started.

Orange Bullet before the trouble started

And contrary to accepted practice, the wind was higher first thing than for later runs.  The only finisher in the first heat was Niklas Bostelmann in Wild Bill Thornton's Milan RS velomobile, at 52.02 with non-legal wind.  Only one finisher in the second heat too, with Annecy chef d'equipe Guillaume de France running Altaïr 8 with the crash panels installed to a non-legal 52.02.

François observing from a safe distance

After that the wind died away and Wiebke Magers clocked a legal 44.03 in the Milan RS as the sol,e runner in heat 3.  She's hoping to attack Lizanne Wilmott's 600/200 m record set last year later in the week, schedules permitting.  Three runners in the fully wind-legal fourth heat, with Steve Slade (hereinafter referred to as Slash to save electrons) grabbing the first Hat of the week with a 51.97 mph run, followed by Peter Borenstadt's Milan SL at 49.30 and Cobus Burger's Milan GT, named "Mint Sauce" for its lurid green paint job, at 37.73.

Twed gets Slash underway for his first run evvah

Mint Sauce

In the final heat François Pervis in an Altaïr 8 shorn of crash panels set a new qualifying record speed of 75.03 mph, ahead of Russell Bridge and Seventy-Seven with 61.04.  The Milan RS closed proceedings with its third run of the morning at 54.06 mph piloted by owner/operator Wild Bill.

François off to obliterate the qualifying course record

Barney Harle launching Russell in Seventy-Seven

In addition to the speed runs it wouldn't be Battle Mountain without a few peculiarly local mishaps.  The attempt by a local moton to run the road closure at the north end of the course was thwarted by flagger Mel and Traffic Control Supervisor Josh, resulting in a chastened motor-ist and a broken "STOP" sign.  Apparently hitting non-compliant vehicles with "STOP" signs is disrecommended and instead a shovel should be used.  There was also a calf who had somehow managed to get through the fence; Josh and Chairman Arnold managed to persuade it back to safety.

A quiet afternoon beckoned so instead I took a drive over to Poo Road¹ to watch Adam, Team Elan and Toronto practicing starts.  Results inconclusive.

Hans van Vugt, pointing

Eta Prime has been Lemmed

No. No, not like that...

Hopes were high for the evening session even though we only had four riders opting to take part.  Surely the wind would do its party piece of dying to nothing around sunset?  Why, no!  No, it did not chiz and there were no legal runs this evening.  Slash ran solo in the first heat and clocked 54.91 mph.  François elected not to push hard once he'd noticed the wind's behaviour and ran 55.44 mph; Russell clocked the fastest time of the evening hitting 70.57 and Peter closing the session with a 49.41.  "It felt really slow!" hes said, probably because it was.  With hindsight we could have held off on the road closures another 10-15 minutes but then again no-one wants to be finishing their runs in the dark.  The forecast for the week, at least from the Nogweegie Meteorological Institute, seems to show more favourable winds in the morning for much of the week.  We will see.

Guillaume wields the F1-stylee jack

1. Quiet back road on the edge of town leading to the animal shelter and the sewage treatment plant.