Racing Results

Thanks to Paul Pancella for the following report:

Tuesday afternoon and evening were set aside for registration, tech inspections, competitor meeting, etc., to try and get all the official stuff out of the way. I estimate about 50 entries in total, drawing from both coasts and Canada. These are divided into classes primarily by vehicle type, with separate classes also for women, juniors, multi-rider, and arms-only. Participation in these latter classes was sparse as usual, with no arms-only riders this year. It was fun to see the vehicles gathering at Indianapolis Raceway Park (after I finally found it) and the already oppressive heat and humidity barely hinted at what was to come. A full day of racing was scheduled for Wednesday at IRP. Festivities started early, about a half hour later than scheduled which is early for HPV races. A one-hour time trial was run twice, once for the faired classes and again for everyone else. I was in the second group, on my unfaired P-38. I think it was after 9:00 when we started and already quite hot. This was followed by a "road" race, also run twice for the same groups. Instead of determining a number of laps for the race, the directors made this also a timed event, a half hour, I guess to help keep things on schedule. I would have preferred a distance instead of a time, for variety, but I did like the one-mile course that was laid out, using part of the oval and pits and access roads; lots of nice turns. However, by the time we got on the course the relentless sunshine and stiff hot breeze took most of the fun out of it. By the time we moved over to the drag strip, we were almost two hours behind schedule. Here there was finally some shade, but it was already too late for much of my skin. Despite some problems with the timing traps failing to register skinny tires, the crew got the 1/8 mile drag races going pretty quickly, and nearly made up the lost time in the schedule. This is not my best event, and I was anxious to be eliminated so that I could get the last event of the day in before our time was up. My personal interest is in HPVs for practical transportation use, so I had arranged to run an "Urban Transpor- tation Contest" on the parking lot after the drag races. Despite the lack of advanced publicity (my fault) and the lack of time, six vehicles entered and the contest went pretty well. More details on request. Thursday was our day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The only event was the glamour event; 200 meter sprints with long runup. Everyone would get a chance to try it, but the prime early morning slots would be given to those vehicles who had registered for the deciMach cash prize, the really fast fully-faired vehicles. Big money for going over 75 mph, but a kilobuck for fastest no matter what the speed, and lesser amounts for 2nd and 3rd fastest. The timed portion of the course turned out to have a pretty stiff headwind even early in the morning, so no records were set. I think two Gold Rushes from the Easy Racers team, a single and a tandem, both broke 50 mph, with the tandem taking first prize this year, and Fred Markham on the single taking second. Sean Costin in a bike borrowed from Canada's Robert Lafleur won the 3rd place prize. I was too hot and weak from sunburn to try more than one run (which was pretty slow) but I was glad to have a chance to ride around that historic track. I did not return after lunch, although the racing continued in the afternoon. Friday we were scheduled to start at 8:00 am at the Major Taylor velodrome. I guess the heat was taking a toll on the crew also, because we were at least an hour late even starting to setup for more sprints. Here again we did some flying start 200 m sprinting, but with less runup on the banked velodrome oval. In fact the optical timing traps designed for single pass runs balked at being reset after runup laps on the 333 m oval. This caused some delays and restricted everyone to a single run, but everyone who was left by now got their chance. Then we did some traditional 1000 m pursuit races in pairs, and ended with about 5 "devil-take-the-hindmost" races. This is a fun event where a large group (or class here) starts together, and after every lap the last person to cross the line is out. Then after cleanup and a group photo, it was time for awards and closing ceremonies. DeciMach cash awards were given first, which I mentioned above. Awards were also given for best homebuilt bike, and best technical innovator. The latter went to a Japanese (I think) fellow who had a nice working linear drive on his bike. Points were tallied for placement in all of the week's events, and the first three finishers overall in each class were recognized. Ray and Shari Brick on their beautiful new carbon-fiber back-to-back tandem were the best of the three multi-rider teams. Theresa Cheatham was the only single female competitor, so she took her class. Theron Hill was the better of the two juniors entered. In the top fully-faired class, Fred Markham was first, if I recall correctly. Next class down is called Modified, and was won by Paul John of New York. Gary Toy won the Super-Stock class on a Lightning Stealth with as large a front fairing as the rules allow. Final results for the unfaired class were not available due to some diffculties in scoring the races on Wednesday. I expect I will be in 4th place when they sort it all out. The biggest prize should go to the organizers and crew who managed to put on a very successful event despite the usual difficulties and the unusual (even for Indiana in June) brutal heat. I think on balance everyone who participated had a good time.

Individual race winners and results
1 Hour Time Trial 1/2 Hour Road Race 1/8 Mile drag race
1000 Meter Pursuits 200 Meter Sprints 200 Meter Sprints / 600 Meter runu
Last Man Out Urban Transportation contest

Thanks go to Don Barry for getting these results to me.
Overall Results

Individual race winners

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