Day 18: Battle Mountain NV

Lazy day, what with the likes of Adam Hari, Larry Lem, John Jackson and divers folks from town having done all the heavy lifting already.  Things wot I have learned since yesterday:

• Long-time competitor and all-round Top Chap Peter Borenstadt is absent this year for health reasons.  GWS, Peter!
• The moulds for SeventySeven, which Russell Bridge was giving away earlier this year to free up space in his garage, are now with Niklas Bostelmann, who's over here crewing for Adam this year.
• The team from Quebec's Université de Sherbrooke rocked up late last night; some of them having done a 50-hour drive.  Sensibly, a lot of them flew instead.

After breakfast I wandered over to the Civic Center.

Chassis of the Adachi family's work-in-progress
They hope to have a multitrack entry next year

So, your guitarist used to be in Evil Gazebo...

Pointy end of Sherbrooke machine, with Pinion gearbox

Larry Lem and transplanted BRITON Ben Bowlby discuss hockey tape

Ben is also planning to have a multitrack machine ready for next year.

Some time later the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo crew showed up, with the result that Joyce Lem now has a new hat:

Use your Junior Pocket Microscope (model 3a) to make out the words
"Girl ENGINEER"

What does this button do?
Cockpit of WooHoo Two

Joyce's magic wand for extracting entry fees from competitors

Mid-afternoon saw the arrival of experimental University of Toronto side project HPT North and the cunning amalgam of bicycle and bacon slicer that is Titan.

Titan already holds the tandem record but captain Calvin Moes and stoker Ethan Elbaz reckon there's more to come.  Plus the beast is going after the mixed tandem record (has anyone previously set one, Mike Mowett?) with Ellen Van Vugt in the back; Ellen is hoping to do her 100th competitive run on the 305 this week.

While some of the official Toronto team were also on-site by mid-afternoon the rest of the team, together with their machines Typhoon and Eta Prime, came through the door about five minutes before the opening meeting kicked off.

Half a wretched hive of scum and villainy, plus Danny Guthrie in the front row

The meeting was very much the same as it has been for my previous twenty visits, this time delivered by Politburo members Hans Van Vugt (who is Head Honcho this year), Joyce (herder of money, paperwork and cats) and Jun Nogami (Timelord).  Jun is sans luggage, because idiot airline.  Apparently his missing Stuffs may be here by late Tuesday.  WTF?

Back to the Super 8 for a nice cup of tea and a sit down.  But soft!  Some, or more, hungry-guts has et all the free cookies in the lobby.  Serious outbreak of FUMMIN avoided by presence of backup cookies brought all the way from North Dakota without melting or turning to crumbs.

Tomorrow morning's qualifying runs on the short course should be a relaxed affair since only Titan and Dark Star have passed scrutineering.  This also means not having to get up at audax o'clock.  Hurrah!

Edit: Forgot to change the time zone on Blogger.  Again.  Why can't it default to the system time on the wossname you're typing on?