News and Updates

Wed 26 Sept, 2001
I have just a few more details on events for the week from Shar Peterson of the Chamber of Commerce. If you have further questions, you can reach her by e-mail battlemtncc@hotmail.com

The Sunday welcoming party is at 7pm in the Battle Mountain Civic Center at 625 S. Broad St.

A change to the day events - Newmont has the mine tour set for Thursday instead of Tuesday. So I arranged for Tuesday to be the day for the Shooting range.

Tentative schedule for day events:

  • Monday - Historic Austin
  • Tuesday - Shooting Range
  • Wednesday - Display Bikes at Civic Center
  • Thursday - Newmont Mine Tour
  • Friday - Ranch Day
  • Saturday - Homecoming Parade (line-up 7:00am, parade starts at 8:00)
                    Soccer games: 10:00am
                    Football games: JV - 11:00am Varsity 1:30pm
                    Awards BBQ - 7:00pm Golf Course

I was informed that Legendary Easy Racers rider Fast Freddy Markham will also be inducted into the HPVA Hall of Fame. Congratulations Fred, sorry to leave you out in my earlier update.

With regards to Orange plastic fencing, we will have enough. No additional donations will be necessary. We still need to secure some orange vests, so let me know if you can bring any.

It's ok to start praying for good weather.

Sean Costin

Mon, 24 Sept 2001
Hello again teams, Media representatives and race officials. It's getting down to the wire now and preparations are being finalized for this great event. 

The repositioning of the timing traps is complete thanks to Shaw Engineering and the multiple distance timing traps will be used. We have received approval for our plan for road blocks and course management to obtain our permit and the Lander County Sheriff has agreed to activate the Road 
blocks.

Just a few small loose ends to clean up and we're ready to race. Needed are Orange safety vests for race officials and some plastic orange fencing for spectator areas. If you have either of these items to lend us, please e-mail me as soon as possible. We may also need to borrow a cell phone or two 
to communicate between the start area and timing area.

Last year we did a poor job of getting good pictures of the event in both electronic and higher quality prints. These pictures are essential to promote the event and improve the appeal to advertisers, potential competitors and spectators. We need pictures of the event that the organizer can use 
free of charge. If someone will be attending that can help us organize this department, please contact me.

I would also like to put together a video of the event (edited this time) to be sold by the HPVA (non-profit) for the promotion of the event and our cause. I would like to ask any of the video teams that will be covering the event to assist us with footage that might be helpful. Any footage from each 
team would be valuable as well and I would like to arrange a video copying session for Friday similar to last year.

The Battle Mountain Chamber of commerce has arranged a room in the Civic Center reserved to meet Sunday evening, Sept.30. Shar Peterson of the C of C calls this meeting our "Welcome Event". Introductions will be made, friendships rekindled and we can start putting together any last minute 
stuff. The Chamber will provide beverages and cookies. If you have any banners or signs you want displayed let Shar know. Shar will have an agenda for the week typed up to hand out. We will keep it informal and welcoming. This is not the Pre- race meeting as discussed in earlier updates. The  Pre-race meeting is still being held on Oct 1st. at 11am at the Civic Center. Once again, the Pre- Race meeting is mandatory for teams, officials and press. Press that cannot attend the meeting will be required to pick up credentials and have a course safety briefing at the Battle Mountain Chamber of Commerce office in the Civic Center. The Civic Center is located at 625 S. Broad St.

Tentative Schedule for day events for those who want to participate is:

  • Monday-day trip to Historic Austin (90 miles south on 305)
  • Tuesday-tour Lonetree Gold mine
  • Wednesday-display bikes at Civic Center so Schools & public may view and ask questions
  • Saturday night- Award Banquet and Hall of Fame

Some of you may have heard that an HPV Hall of Fame is being created by the HPVA under the direction of Carole Leone. Since the first two inductees were going to be in attendance at the event, we decided to Honor them at the Banquet on Saturday October 6th. The first two Inductees to the HPVA 
Hall of Fame are Gardner Martin and George Georgiev. These two gentlemen have distinguished themselves as the most successful and influential HPV designers and builders in the last 20 years. The inductees were voted on by the HPVA board of Directors. There are also plans to create an Electronic Hall of Fame on the IHPVA.org website.

I have given the green light to the Bearacuda tandem team from Cal Berkley. to compete as the 5th and final team. They have two top collegiate racers powering their bike and they have applied for 3 IHPVA records. Their best performance is 58Mph in the 200M. 

After talking at length to their team leader Tai Stillwater, I am confident that they are prepared to challenge the existing world records for Multi-rider vehicles. Their riders will be Lance Doherty and Andy Joque-Maynes. They will be staffing the support of their vehicle in shifts. Their support team consists 
of the following people (Tai Stillwater) -director, Tomonori Honda, Jigar Mehta, Ben Blake, Isaac Noh, Sam Bernier, Alan Ni,and Francis Ku.

I am very pleased that we will have this team at the event. They represent the finest in Collegiate HPV teams and the future of our sport. They will also represent a new challenge to the Double Gold Rush team who was racing uncontested in the Multi-rider category. Tai Stillwater's e-mail address is  taivillius@yahoo.com.


At this time, I'd like to acknowledge some individuals who have volunteered to assist in the attempts to recognize their efforts and provide you with contact people if you have questions or need help in a particular area.

  • Doug Mills (Battle Mountain Chamber of Commerce, Management of Spectator and parking areas)
  • Shar Peterson (Battle Mountain Chamber of Commerce, Organizer of Off site events and Banquet)
  • John Cooper jcooper@stic.net (WHPSC Press Releases)Jonathan Woolrich(Course Official)
  • Paul Gracey (IHPVA Timing Official)
  • Bill Gaines (IHPVA Timing Official)
  • Carol Leone (Course Official, Hall of Fame Awards)
  • George Leone (Course Official)
  • Chris Broome (Course Official)
  • Larry Lem (Course Signage and official)
  • Warren Beauchamp (website management) 

If there are other HPV people attending that have offered to volunteer and are not listed here, please let me know and I'll make sure we give you an assignment. We will need additional volunteers for course managment.

This is a list of the officials we will need in place to start the event, Aside from those positions already assigned I will assign officials to their positions at the Pre-race meeting. Officials may rotate their positions with other officials during the week so that they can get fresh perspectives on the event.

  1.Race Starter
  2. Ranch Road 1 official
  3. Ranch Road 2 official
  4. Ranch Road 3 official
  5. Spectator Area official
  6. HPV Catching official
  7. HPV Catching official
  8. Head Timing official
  9. Wind Speed official
  10. 200M Timing Tape official
  11. 200M Timing Tape official 2
  12. 500M Timing Tape official
  13. 1 kilometer and 1 Mile Timing official

I'd also like to thank Easy Racers and Bryan Ball of Bentrider Online for their official sponsorship of the event. 

Daily reports from the event will be available on www.wisil.recumbents.com and www.bentrideronline.com/ 

Of interest to many is the documentary and press coverage for the event. Quentin Van Marle of the Blueyonder Challenge team gave this accounting of the press from the UK. The BBC documentary will be going ahead as planned. They will also be shooting footage for a second BBC prime-time program 
called 'Science Shack'. Not only that, we have BBC radio attending, plus the NOW Channel (screening in the Far East and Australia). On top of that, the Daily Express, the Guardian, and The Times (three 
of the largest national newspapers) are coming. In addition, a second BBC documentary team will be attending. 

Ross Crockford a freelance writer from Victoria, Canada will be attending as well as Ash Potterton from Now.com.

I am truly looking forward to seeing this event come together. Everyone has put an unprecedented effort into their vehicles and race preparations. We are destined to have a tremendous week of racing. 

If anyone has any questions, please email me at seancostin@aol.com

Sean Costin
WHPSC Organizer

Fri, 14 Sept 2001
Clearly the last few days have been filled with anguish and sorrow for all of us. It has been difficult for me to even focus on the event planning. We are now only 16 days from the event and I felt that I needed to cancel or assure people that the event will go on. 

On Wednesday, Quentin Van Marle of the Blue Yonder Team called to express his deepest sympathy and assure me that they have every intention of attending. Though I have not heard from the other competitors, I assume that they will be driving to the event and transportation will not be a problem. There are no problems with respect to the course or any other aspect of the race. I also doubt that we are a terrorist target. Therefore, I see no reason to cancel or postpone the event. 

Please let me know if there are any people associated with the race that the tragedy has touched with the loss off a family member. I would also like to know of any individuals that had planned on attending and volunteering that have changed their plans including the documentary team. I realize that we are still in an unstable situation. More apparent terrorists were apprehended yesterday at an airport. If something were to prevent travel from Europe, I will still organize the event. 

In other Event news, The North American Speed Championship did not produce a candidate that could make it to the event. Also, the Berkley Tandem team has not responded to my calls, so at this time I am closing the event to the 4 existing teams. 

Please plan to attend the Banquet on Saturday night October 6th after the final attempts. It will be held at the Golf Course Club House. I have been asked to give a count of the expected participants, so If you CAN'T make it, let me know. Also, we have been invited to participate in a homecoming parade in Battle Mountain. There are few things more American than a small town homecoming parade. I hope you can attend. There will be more information at the time of the event. 

Sean Costin
WHPSC Organizer

Wed, 05 Sept 2001
The Double Gold Rush team has returned from their high altitude testing grounds in the Sierras to report that they have just exceeded 70mph according to Gardner Martin, so it's all systems go for Battle Mountain.

Wed, 22 Aug 2001
 Hello Racers, Officials, Volunteers, Press and interested individuals. 

There is much to report on a number of fronts. First of all, The Cheetah team will not be able to attend apparently due to a scheduling conflict. I have been contacted by two other single rider vehicles interested in racing in Battle Mountain. They Are Rob Wood of Dayton Ohio who would race his very beautiful Giles Poirier built streamliner and Rob English who has imported John Kingsbury's latest creation from England. I have informed them that the fastest of them at the North American Speed Championships in Montreal will get the bid for Battle Mountain. This will make it a field of 5 teams.

 Just a day after I made a deal with these two riders, a Team from The University of California at Berkley (claiming to own 5 world records) in their bike "Bearacuda" indicated their interest. I immediately gave them alternate status and indicated that I would inform the other teams who plan to attend that they are interested in making a run. This way if any team plans to forfeit a run, they could take it. Since this is a qualified team, if any of you would like to share your time slots with them, there wouldn't be a problem from me. 

The Nevada Commission on Tourism is paying for the advertisements that are require for road closure. This will save about $800. from entry fees. The cost for the survey changes are uncertain. The engineering company is looking at the course today. I expect the fees to be no more than $500. This will be subdivided by team into the entry fee. Aside from insurance which will be about $20 per rider, and timing equipment rental there will be some incidental costs, so expect to pay no more than $200 for the week of racing and if costs are less, I'll adjust them to reflect actual costs. 

The Nevada Department of Transportation is being more strict this year and it will effect the launching and catching procedure each team uses, so please be prepared. Here are the new restrictions: 

  • No bike riding on 305. Any warmups should be done on stationery trainers. 

  • No vehicles will be allowed to park closer than 30' from the edge of the pavement including team vehicles and timing officials. Also, the bikes must be unloaded and loaded at this distance from the road. This does allow us to use the wide entrance area in front of the trucking company we used last year, but the team vans/ trucks must be parked 30 feet back from the road. The same goes for the catching. No bikes can be loaded into vehicles on HWY 305, so after the catch, the rider will get out and wheel the bike to the Filipini ranch road where it can be loaded. Teams can elect to use designated catchers so that the chase vehicles can turn directly into the ranch road. 

  • Spectators may view the event from behind the Right of Way fence which is 75 feet from the road center.

 I am working on having a protected viewing box closer to the road, but that has not been approved by NDOT. Anyone within the right of way must be cleared by me and have safety vests on (except for racers). The only people who will be allowed in the right of way are: Race officials and marshals, The racers and chase vehicle personnel, and individuals with press clearance. We are planning on having a bus transport people from the civic center in Battle Mountain to the spectator area to reduce the parking problem. Spectator cars must be parked on the Fillipini ranch road. There will be no parking on the side of the road like last year- including race officials and press. 

It is on this same Filipini ranch road where we will be announcing 200M times and speeds and indicating the legality of the winds within 15 minutes of the last run. 

We are planning an awards banquet on Saturday evening to be hosted by the Battle Mountain Chamber of Commerce. If anyone has difficulty with this timing, please let me know ASAP. 

There will be a pre-race meeting to be held on Oct. 1st at 11am at a yet to be disclosed location (probably the civic center) This meeting is required attendance for all teams, press, and race officials. Course access credentials will be issued at this meeting. 

The documentary team from the BBC plan to use a helicopter to get some exciting shots of the attempts. I wish to have a test to determine guidelines for distance from the road after the meeting at the Airport. Paul Gracey and IHPVA officials should be in attendance at this test. Any racers may also attend and we will need a streamliner to do the test so I'd like to get a volunteer. On days where we know that wind conditions will not permit record breaking attempts, the helicopter film crew may wish us to allow them to go beyond the record attempt guidelines to get some more interesting shots. This situation is OK as long as it is agreed upon by the racing team and common sense safety for racers, their teams and spectators is not compromised. 

Updates to race information are to be posted on the www.wisil.recumbents.com website. This site has a page dedicated to the event with links. Feel free to update Warren Beauchamp with any links or photos or comments from your team you wish to put on the site. Warren's email address is wbeaucha@yahoo.com. This site will also be covering the event daily with results. 

Concurrent to the event will be the Interbike trade show in Las Vegas. There could be some sponsorship potential there is anyone is interested. 

Sponsors will be interested to know that there will be a banner which will be displayed behind the announcement of the times each night. Advertising space is being sold. This banner will feature heavily in photographs and the documentary filming. There are two highly prominent locations that will sell for $500 and 8 positions below which sell for $200 ea. Please contact me if you are interested. There will be daily press releases on the event. 

Please let me know email addresses of any organization that you think would publish news on the event and we will get them on the list. T

hat's all I have time to write about. It is all very exciting. There are more little things in the works that will add to the prestige and popularity of this event, but I'll save them for next time. Please contact me by e-mail off this distribution list if you have any questions or concerns. 

Sean Costin Race Organizer

 

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