Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary: Day 25: Battle Mountain NV

I hope you realise, Constant Reader, that I'm missing Robyn Hitchcock playing in St. Leonards On Sea tonight in order to Disseminate Essential Information...

Return to more normal conditions this morning i.e. bloody freezing and almost still conditions. I say "almost" because the Wind™ teased us all morning by dropping to legal speeds before easing up again almost every time a bike hove into view. A mixed bag this morning. Just for a change it was Video Woe that nobbled Eta Prime while 'topher was on the start line with the fairing being fitted. The team has a replacement monitor but the bike was out for the morning. Alexis was the only taker for the first heat; Beluga One reaching 52.49 mph but not with legal wind.

Beluga One has been redecorated overnight...

Heat 2 had Calvin and Ellen in Titan and Justin S in WooHoo 2 64.13 for the former, 51.04 for the latter. Neither run wind-legal chiz. Calvin said he was pushing hard but the bike just didn't accelerate. Too cold?

For once Titan ended a run with both wheels still on the deck

WooHoo 2 nearing catch

FFS, Blogger, stop changing the damned font at random. (FUMMS)

Heat 3 had Adam and Dark Star as the sole starter. 73.94 mph. Non-legal wind. Gagh!

Wiebke and Niklas prepping Dark Star

Typhoon was the sole runner in Heat 4, if I've read my scrawl right, with Ethan T aboard. 54.59 with - you guessed it - non-legal wind.

Ethan T in Typhoon
The purple stripe is cool, at least according to Erin

A combination of a launch fail for Titan and MOAR Chain Woe for Typhoon stopped play for Heat 5 but at least it had warmed up sufficiently at the long course start that I could feel my toes again. The Toronto team hauled the entire front sub-assembly out of Typhoon and threatened it with the old ultra-violence:

Erin gives Typhoon's oily bits a Hard Stare
Purple stripe suspicious colour match for Erin's shorts

Titan at an Improbable Angle

Seems we actually got three bikes down the course in the swiftly-arranged Heat 6; Calvin and Ethan in Titan, and the Justins S and T in WooHoo 2 and Typhoon respectively. 69.26 mph and the first wind-legal run of the morning for Titan; 54.32 for WooHoo 2 and 41.17 for Typhoon.

At the sort of time that normally sees us back in town the circus moved down to the short course start for two more runs. In the Typhoon corner, Frank. In the Titan corner, and weighing in at $US 250, the one, the only, Professor Sir Chief Justice Baron Timelord Jun Nogami! No, they didn't let him drive.

You put your right leg in, your left leg out...

Frank in Typhoon

Calvin and Jun got their steed up to ~ 55 mph in 2 km when the main video screen blanked out. Somehow a cable got disconnected. They trundled through at 30.57 mph, faithlessly hogging only the second lot of legal win this morning. The luckless Frank suffered more Chain Woe in Typhoon and ended his week with a DNS.

Back to the factory for the morning debrief, group photos and clearing of the Civic Center for tonight's awards do. It was deemed Cruel and Unusual to send Danny Guthrie up the ladder this year, because he's 80. So the job fell to me. I hate ladders.

Teams and vehicles.
Come back SeventySeven and your interesting blueness!

Vehicles and riders
L-R: Frank, Ethan T, Justin T, Erin, Christopher, Harrison,
Jaden, Justin S, Adam, Jun, Ellen, Ethan E, Calvin, Alexis

I don't know whether Officer Aten rocked up to bundle some miscreant into the back of his cruiser this year, coz I came back to the Super 8 sharpish to get the group photos uploaded.

One more set of runs starting at 17:20 Pacific. Hopefully we'll get 9 bike/rider combos down the road with high temperatures, legal winds, new tandem records and upgraded Hats, though alas we'll be without Beluga One as most of the team has to leave town to fly home before proceedings are concluded. I'll post this now (half past two-ish in the arvo) and update it after tonight's activities.

So after the Awards Dinner I got back to the Super 8, put the kettle on and promptly fell asleep for three hours which is why I'm posting this update Sunday lunchtime. Saturday afternoon the Wind™ was supposed to drop but it didn't get the memo and there were no wind-legal runs at all. Justin T in Typhoon was the sole rider in the first heat with 38.97 mph, coasting through timing after the chain fell off. Again. In heat 2 Justin S & WooHoo2 fought the Wind™ for 53.39 while Ethan T and Typhoon clocked 44.10, coasting through timing after the chain fell off. Again. The event closed with Adam doing 55.82 while not trying. Titan didn't run because Wind™, leaving Ellen just short of her century, while Eta Prime failed to make the start because of difficulty getting the fairing in place due to repairs after Erin's crash the other day. We suggested loading her into the bike in the parking lot and carrying bike and rider onto the road, like wot we used to do with Damjan Zabovnik but the message didn't travel from catch to start as fast as Bill's car chiz.

Typhoon & Justin T

Joyce looks for fresh cats to herd

Back to town to get cleaned up and - optionally - don the Posh Frock for the Awards Dinner. Pizza & divers salads. Om and, moreover, nom nom nom. Then actual Awards:

Hats: Ethan T (55), Erin (55), Justin S (50), Justin T (50), Alexis^[•^] (50)Note Posh Frock...

Erin's plan to wear that ^^^^ dress in Eta Prime thwarted on the grounds of practicality rather than for aesthetic reasons.

Some of the teams:

The tattered remnants of Team Hermus

University of Toronto

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

HPT Falcon, feat. Nik on harmonica

The customary visit from Officer Aten of Whatever The Nevada Highway Patrol Is Called This Week:

Respect mah Authoritah!

Only one speeding ticket issued this year chiz, to Adam, but a fair few for failing to maintain travel lane and one to the unfortunate Frank Fang of Toronto, for "impeding". Toronto escaped being ticketed for "littering" i.e. letting Stuffs escape from the back of their truck and Bill got away with his 201 mph antics because closed road.