Lot's of weather frustrations around this year. It must be disappointing for people who have planned, at some cost too, to make their way down there only to be met with circumstances they can do nought about.
This has been one of the worst years I can remember for weather; there is talk of making it a bit longer and/or moving it it to before Labor Day (1st Monday in September). And Kieran from the Scousers has suggested that the European teams pool their resources in getting bikes and bits air-freighted to, say, Reno to cut transport costs and hassle. Tourism Nevada have been hanging around looking for suggestions today too.
Sadly Barbara Buatois still hasn't regained her starting mojo and was unable to make a run in either bike.
But what's happened to Barbara? I can't imagine she's any less the athlete she was, but It's like I'm reading about somebody whose never been in one of these things before. Is the new Varna, just so different from the old one, as to make handling verging on the 'not possible?. Is it built by George [sorry I've forgotten his surname]?
Mostly lack of practice, according to Julius (Mr Barbara). Plus they reckon the camera on the new bike wasn't pointed 100% straight down the road. They spent some time getting the alignment just so yesterday afternoon, and have had the multilingual Todd Reichert launching the bike too. Neither last night nor this morning were up to the standards we'd come to expect from Barbara but she didn't go down or off the road.
Very cold and initially quite breezy this morning, so much so that the riders scheduled for the 07:30 heat decided not to run. It never got properly warm but the wind died for the later runs. No wrecks and nobody drownded; fastest run was Shinsuke Kouzai with an non-legal 76.22. Best wind-legal run was Andrea with 73.72, just ahead of Ken's 73.37. Both the Dutch women were over 70 too; Yasmin's 67.96 was thus a little disappointing, though both
BRITONS will be running this evening when it's forecast to be warm and not windy.
Photo op and visit from the Highway Patrol afterwards, which saw Calvin, Aniek and serial offender Barbara cuffed and led away in disgrace. For some reason the Scousers wanted me in their team photo afterwards. I have no idea why.
Final runs tonight, plus the awards bash. Things this Unit would like to see:
- World record for Yasmin
- 80 mph from Andrea/Calvin/Ken
(Crosses digits)
