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Main Results

2004 WHPSC Thursday Pictures and Racing Results
Words and Mount Lewis pictures by Dave "FLJS" Larrington; all other pictures by Bill Gaines unless otherwise noted.

Thursday's Results

No riders to qualify today, so your friendly neighborhood FLJS and his cohorts can have a nice long lie-in¹ and a leisurely breakfast instead of rushing around in an early morning flurry of standing in the desert shivering while passing truckers wonder why there is a goon standing in the middle of nowhere wearing an orange vest.

But anyway.

A Several of us who missed yesterday's Mount Lewis trip congregate in Garrie Hill's motorcar and off we go to ascend the mountain.  Garrie has taken the precaution of obtaining accurate directions from a Nice Lady at the Chamber of Commerce, so out of town we go, pass the ranch and take the first turning on the left as, in line with the Nice lady's advice, it appears to be well-traveled.  However, her directions were this: wrong.  The track swiftly becomes narrow, steep, rough and lots of other things which would preclude making the ascent in a minibus.  The Fearless Four - Garrie, Yours Truly, Tom Krieg and Eric Ware - democratically decide that we are in the wrong place, turn round and meet Mark Anderson, faithfully following our dust, about two minutes later.

Gleaning advice as to the real correct road from some fortuitously-placed campers, we are soon at the top of the mountain.  Photographs are taken and the obligatory superlatives uttered before we concur (Yay! - William The Concurrer) that yes, it is rather cold and yes, it is lunchtime and yes, it is BEER o'clock, so back to Battle Mountain we go.  Kudos to Garrie for a safe and controlled journey in the face of some big drops...

	In Lewis Canyon.  The only photograph in the history of all things ever to prove that there is no such place (Shurely shome mishtake - Ed.)
View of the course from Mount Lewis.  You will need your Junior Pocket Microscope Model 3a to see it, obov.

And so to the course, and Lo! It was good.  I was helping Garrie Hill with his end of the timing system today, which meant juggling pieces of paper and anemones anemometers and Stuff, leaving too few hands for photography,  Thus today's on-course pics were taken by Bill Gaines, which is why they are Good.  Probably.  The first group had a mixed bag of runs; Dean Peterson pulled the Coyote up with a loose wheel disc somewhere on the course, thus baffling we easily-confused timers when his chase car appeared sans HPV.  Ron Layman banged in a solid run to bag the Cal Poly college record, though as with almost all tonight's runs the wind a bit too helpful to be legal  Orin Macquarrie set a wind-assisted personal best, as did Tom Nowak, but Lisa Tonello had problems getting the Varna 1 under way, and after a Several of attempts, decided not to start.  Boo!

	Bill Gaines has too much time on his hands...
I include this photo of part of Garrie's timing kit in order to demonstrate that, in spite of any evidence to the contrary, we are not making this up.
	Ron Layman and Velox Solium approaching the traps.
Orin Macquarrie, now with New! IMPROVED!! correx (coroplast) fin around his rear wheel.
	Tom Nowak & Super 7

A twenty minute gap between sessions then followed, in the hope that the wind would start to behave itself, but it didn't.  We initially though that Sam's run was made under legal wind conditions, but later sums showed this not to be the case, chiz.  Frank Geyer got hit by a strong gust a mile out, which knocked about 4 mph off his speed just when he felt himself about to join the exclusive 70 mph Club, while Fast Freddy dropped the Mephisto's chain about 1 km out and coasted through.  Mr. Georgiev was Not Pleased - "I tell him he need chain guard" - and other mutterings which have no place in a family web site such as this.

Next up was Ellen van Vugt in the Varnowski, smooth as ever and looking very quick.  After a moment or two of prodding his calculator, Garrie tells me that her speed is 65.80 mph and, given that the wind speeds on her run were the lowest of all, a new World Record appears to be in the bag.  Alas, Paul Gracey's system, while clocking the speed at 66.02 mph, reckons the wind speed to be above the prescribed limits  Bah, Bah and thrice-times Bah!  Mackie Martin had a smooth run in what we now know to be called the TriRush, and Dean Peterson got the only "legal" run of the night, as well as a personal best (I think), having fixed the Coyote in time for a second attempt.  No aerial photography tonight, as the Easy Racers Air Cavalry was grounded by lack of a camera operator, but we did learn today that on Tuesday, Freddy's run was nearly disrupted by an errant badger, courtesy of Mark Anderson's video camera.

	Sam Whittingham passes the start marker.
Frank Geyer at speed.  Paintwork damage from last night's shenanigans is, fortunately, on the other side, plus the boys did a lot of work sanding and polishing this afternoon.
	Fast Freddy and the Mephisto.  Paintwork damage from last night's shenanigans is, fortunately, on the other side, plus the boys did a lot of work sanding and polishing this er, hang on...
Ellen's Stealth Varna Clone possibly en route to a new World Record.
	Mackie Martin in the newly-signwritten TriRush.
Coyote, about to become the world's fastest street bike.
	Race Director Jonathan Woolrich (in red shirt) takes a pre-dinner aperitif.

The post-race meeting was, ah, interesting.  Quote Of The Day had to be Sam's utterance: " I am not looking forward to this phone call!"  Then it was over to the Civic Center for the annual Basque dinner, with lashings of top grub, excellent dancing by the native experts and (mostly) awful dancing by most² of the travelling army.  Note to Chris Bechtel:  there are good reasons why the professionals do not wear heavy boots for this activity.

Because I am lazy and incompetent, I neglected to take my camera with me, so the blackmail photos will have to wait, but because Hans Wessels had a note from his Mum saying he was excused from dancing on the grounds of Road Rash, we were spared the sight of six-and-a-half-foot mutants dancing with ten-year old girls.  I still have the photos of Mr. Webmaster Beauchamp from 2002, though...

And then home.  Helping Alice with that big bottle of wine was this: a mistake.

Additional:  There is a Prize of Ten of your American Dollars for the first person who can present photographic evidence of Orin Macquarrie not smiling...

Thursday Racing Results