Battle Mountain 2022 <== Note subject change!

[Mr Larrington]

Tuesday morning runs delayed by an hour in the hope it stops raining.  Crosses thumbs, presses fingers…

[spesh]

Thought about sacrificing a spare P.S.O. to appease the weather gods/weakly god-like entities?

Or if that is deprecated too much by any P.S.O.s present, leaving a ritual offering of stroopwafels at the start line...

[Mr Larrington]

Thought about sacrificing a spare P.S.O. to appease the weather gods/weakly god-like entities?

Or if that is deprecated too much by any P.S.O.s present, leaving a ritual offering of stroopwafels at the start line...

Most of the University of Toronto team nearly sacrificed themselves when they stopped their minibus+trailer at catch to drop ff a PSO or two, oblivious to the Rocky Mountain Double* bottom dumper rig approaching from astern at R17.  From which it may be deduced that there were runs this morning, albeit delayed by an hour to allow the weather to pass through.  The Frenchies elected to sit it out - probably wisely as the wind was mostly being uncoöperative again, though Titan did manage to sneak one in at 53.29 mph.  Running on one engine again as this time it was stoker Bill Kong who lost his chain.  Fastest was Andrea Gallo in Phoenix with 76.63 mph, BRITON Russell did 64.46 and other BRITON Noah Philips crashed after ~ two miles.  Apparently their ground clearance is so minimal that changing to skinnier tyres caused the belly of the bike to ground on the (minimal) crown of the road.  Rider OK, bike collected a few more scratches.

Albeit that there was no existing record for the category, it was bound to happen sooner or later if the wind was friendly, but it is pleasing to report that Alyssa Miller (11) is now the holder on the women's U-12 multitrack record with a 21.22 mph legal run from the 600 metre mark in Teardrop.


Teardrop on Sunday by Mr Larrington, on Flickr


Master Mechanic Alyssa (11), this morning by Mr Larrington, on Flickr

It chucked it down on the way back to town after the morning session but it looks to be brightening up now.  We'll send an advance party out this afternoon to report on conditions Out There.

* Tractor unit, tri-axle trailer, double-axle dolly, single axle short trailer.

[Mr Larrington]

Cracking weather for Tuesday night - it would have been perfect if it had been 10 degrees warmer.  All 8 bikes had legal wind; Andrea and Phoenix fastest of the night with 79.32 mph.  François only managed 75.61   Russ third with a 65.10 so a shiny new hat and the comment that "Two Northern monkeys in a garage went faster than the Olympic athlete in the bike built by an F1 team".  Team Policumbent's second female rider arrived today so Martina decided to maximise her seat time with two runs.  First one was the faster with 66.18 mph.  BRITAIN'S Noah Philips kept Marlow rubber side down and got 55.04.  Titan managed to keep both engines running for a 64.38 mph clocking but then crashed hard, fortunately before reaching the bridge.  Captain Calvin said he just lost control as soon as they came off the power.  Both riders OK, not so sure about the machine.

[Mr Larrington]

Not much excitement Wednesday morning coz a lot of people were staying in bed, fettling their bikes or both.  Sadly it transpires that Titan is through for the week after last night's upset, though stoker Bill Kong is going to have a run in their second-string vehicle Cyclone tomorrow morning.  Bestest run was François' wind-legal 78.85 mph.  Only BRITON was Noah, with a wind-illegal 58.13.  n00b Matilde Vitillo qualified TaurusX at 49.8 mph on the short course.

Tonight's weather forecast looks like someone has dipped people's screens in green and blue paint, and not just two states away either.  Hopefully it'll miss us but we'll be sending a recce party out in an hour or so to check.

[Mr Larrington]

So we went out to the 305 and it didn't look too bad at 17:15 but all the riders elected to wait to see if conditions would improve.

They didn't.  Wind, rain, ect &, moreover, ect.  Back in town by 18:30.  Piss.

[Mr Larrington]

Dodged the showers and the sneks¹ Thursday morning and had naff-all wind  All runs legal.  Silly Frenchies didn't come out to play and Andrea Gallo chose not to run either, which left Team Northern Monkeys to top the standings with a 73.79 by Russell².  They're getting a nice little rivalry going with Adam Hari in Wahoo, who clocked 72.01.  65 dead for Martina, 61.89 for Noah, 60.17 for Matilde, 55.93 for Wild Bill Thornton and 54.21 for Peter.  Alyssa (11) ran an unfaired hand/leg propelled ICE VTX from the 600 metre start at 19.54 mph.  Cerberus let the side down when the main screen inexplicably switched to mirror image, making control of the already wayward vehicle impossible.

Weather forecast for this evening looks OK but there's still some big black clouds in da 'hood and if I'm not mistaken³ that was lightning just now.

1: Chief flagger Geri-Ann heard a rattlesnek at the 5 mile start this morning so everyone had been advised to watch their step when wandering around away from the road.
2: Elevates him from 5th to 2nd in the BRITISH standings behind only Ken Buckley.
3: I wasn't.

[Kim]

Team Northern Monkeys to top the standings with a 73.79 by Russell

Woo, and indeed, hurrah!

Reckon a cunningly-positioned snek might get him the extra 4mph?

[Mr Larrington]

Team Northern Monkeys to top the standings with a 73.79 by Russell

Woo, and indeed, hurrah!

Reckon a cunningly-positioned snek might get him the extra 4mph?

Not sure whether putting a snek in the Wahoo to slow Adam down would work, on account of him being from Captain Cook's Mistake where similarly dangerous beasties stroll the streets as a matter of course.

Seems Andrea's DNS was down to a malfunctioning video screen.  The Video Demon is obviously loose in Team Policumbent's truck.

Edit: Thunderstorm appears to have wandered off towards Winnemucca and good riddance.

[Mr Larrington]

Rain stayed away.  Wind didn't.  Remained officially Bastard Windy long enow that no-one wanted to run in the first two scheduled heats.  First and last road closure at 18:40 which is about as late as we can push it before it gets too dark.  François and Andrea both went down at launch and didn't restart.  Matilde did an excellent but too windy 65.72 before crashing heavily in the thickening gloom when she was unable to see the catch team until way too late.  Down, slide and a couple of rolls thrown in for good measure.  She's fine and the internals of the bike are fine though the slide-on nose section will probably have to go to landfill.  They have spares   Lincoln was the only other competitor and did a wind-legal 55.19 to round off a frustrating evening.

Forecast for tomorrow is very little wind until midday so we've pushed all the morning start times back by an hour to allow it to warm up a bit and not to give the timers some extra zeds, oh no.

[rafletcher]

I liked this from Travel Nevada

"Collegiate engineering teams... work all year to perfect their bondo-encapsulated pedal powered vehicles",

[Mr Larrington]

Many of them are indeed bondo-encapsulated by the end of the week.  I think Cyclone is the only two-wheeler present this year that hasn't been down at least once.

[Mr Larrington]

Cold - like 5 C cold on the way out to the course - but calm.  Only Martina attracted the attention of the Wind Demon today during her 68.44.  Andrea fastest with 75.84, from Russ with 72.95.  He's not convinced that there's any more in the tank chiz.  Adam ran 69.55before leaving catchers sprawled in the road as he came in somewhat faster than was prudent.  Beth from LSBU scraped her knee quite badly but has been declared serviceable after some repair work by Organisatrix Alice and one of Toronto's PSOs.  Diego went one better and actually hit Al Krause before narrowly missing me and steering off into the brush.


P9160625 by Mr Larrington, on Flickr


P9160626 by Mr Larrington, on Flickr


P9160627 by Mr Larrington, on Flickr


P9160628 by Mr Larrington, on Flickr


P9160631 by Mr Larrington, on Flickr


P9160637 by Mr Larrington, on Flickr

Bill Kong in Cyclone also gave us a few heart-stopping moments but hit the brakes hard and got caught successfully.

Still nice and sunny atm but the wind has picked up a bit.  Hopefully it'll behave according to the playbook and drop again in a couple of hours time...

[Mr Larrington]

Warm and calm for the Friday evening runs but the evening's entertainments were marred when François had a huge crash that started about 100 meters before timing - the team think as a result of a rear flat.  Bike slid down the road for a couple of hundred metres before going off to the right in between the two sets of timing beams.  Julia Thornton, Wild Bill's wife, is a nurse and was on hand to assess François' condition once he's been extracted from the machine and as I type he's at the hospital being given a more thorough inspection.  The team is through for the week, though.  Scrutineers Hans and Arnold took one look at this:


IMG_20220916_192130516_HDR by Mr Larrington, on Flickr

and said "NO" in unison.  He was close to 85 mph at the time of the crash.  Slick work by the Annecy team and the timing crew meant that Martina, next on the road, was able to get by without having to slow down but her 67.64 mph run was the only one of the session not to have legal wind.

Andrea made slow back-to-back runs with "something rubbing", a fate which also befell Russ, who elected not to run at all.  They think the tyres have expanded a bit after being pumped up a bit harder.  Matilde in TaurusX was the fastest of the evening with 70.52.  Full results will be on Jun Nogami's blog as usual, unless he's having his dinner first.

[ElyDave]

Looks fairly terminal for that shell, hope no serious damage to the pilot

[Mr Larrington]

Not sure of current status but I just heard they let him out of the hospital last night.

[Mr Larrington]

François up and around at the debrief after the Saturday morning runs.  Wearing a neck brace and looking a bit stiff and sore but otherwise seems OK.  Says he wants to come back next year

[Mr Larrington]

Now I've deciphered my spider-on-the-razzle notes from this morning:  Warmer than yesterday because clouds.  We even had a bit of rain which forced a 15 minute delay to the third heat.  Winds good except - natch - for Martina.  "I just want to go home now!" she said yesterday.  Today she was bouncing around like Tigger on meth again   Russ managed a 73.79 for the second time this week; Andrea fastest with 76.70.  Jun's blog will look a bit different today coz Arnold took over at timing, Hans switched to chief starter and Jun wandered around bestowing bad luck on Cyclone.  Lincoln had an uncharacteristic fall at launch then lost his chain after a few hundred yards and steered off the road for a soft landing.  He got to run again later though.

More woes for Diego too.  "Something rubbing" followed by an exploding tyre.  He's joined Adam, Calvin, François and Alyssa (11) on the list of folks who ent riding no more - either through lack of something to ride (Calvin, François) general knackerdom (Adam) or having to go back to Oklahoma for skool (Alyssa (11)).

Sun's out, wind looks so-so, fingers crossed for one last hurrah.

[Mr Larrington]

Saturday night the winds weren't kind to the earlier runners.  Some cared less than others, includinf LSBU's Noah Philips who did a run trailing a Union fleg from the tail of Marlow.  Andrea clocked the best wind-legal run of the week with 80.32 mph; sadly neither Martina nor Matilde were treated as kindly by the weather gods.  I'm sure Jun will have plenty of time to update his blog on the way home tomorrow since he has to change planes three times between Reno and Toronto   The Automatic Diary won't have owt much in it until I get to Sonora CA tomorrow evening because it's late and I'm tired.  Nightie night.

[Mr Larrington]

Just bumped into the Annecy team at SFO.  They've got another six hours to wait for their Shiny Metal Birb

[Mr Larrington]

Readers who are wondering what happened to the final instalment of this year’s Automatic Diary need fret no more

[Mr Larrington]

Russell Bridge's video of what went down: https://youtu.be/txRBk13VzZc

[Pingu]

 

Featuring a certain Mr Larrington in a couple of cameos?

[Mr Larrington]

Featuring a certain Mr Larrington in a couple of cameos?

Sitting on the stage at most of the meetings and occasionally at the roadside at the start.

[McWheels]

I've been distracted, but really glad to see it go ahead this year, and with some decently behaved machines with strong riders.