Here are a couple of things to ponder:
First of all, tonight was the Volunteer Party at the Wendover Community Center. While there I learned that this event had about 550 entrants (pre-entries less no-shows/cancellations plus entries at the salt), of which about 330 were cars/trucks, 220 were bikes. The were something like 146 new records set - but strangely enough, 96 or so were by bikes and the rest by cars/trucks. The usual is just the opposite of that -- lots more car records than bikes. n I don't know why there's a difference and none was offered.
A few days ago I was talking with Mike Cook (who runs the Shootout). He was telling Nancy and me that Intrepid, the mining company across the road, was chatting with him about the conditions way down at the freeway end of the international course -- the one that the Shootout uses. The big pipe that spews the salty water back onto the course down there worked fine -- but since it was just one - the salt spread out from that one point. The guy from Intrepid said to Mike something like "Hey, if you want it spread more evenly we'll just add a handful of new pipes along the dike. And they did just that, and now that end of the course sure looks wonderful - 'specially when compared to last year. At the Shootout in '12 the first mile or so looked like salty dirt - much brown, not much white. It was back enough that many of the vehicles would start at the half mile or even farther down, forfeiting the extra length in exchange for better course. They has less room to accelerate -- but made up for that lack by having a much smoother surface from which to start. This year -- well, Nancy and I drove down there a couple of times, and it is, indeed, pretty good looking and solid white and pretty smooth, too. And we didn't run into wet spots. Last year, you might remember hearing that the water's edge was so close to the end of the course - that the Ack Attack bike chose not to run, expecting the conditions to be too bad for good racing. So -- the salt spreading/pumping had APPARENTLY (that is, who can prove anything out there where Mother Nature is involved) has made a big difference. I'll letcha know during the Shootout if things really are better.
And that's enough for now. I made one run again today - and might have been on a bicycle. The #1 course wasn't very good -- and I had to pedal the throttle for about 4 1/4 miles (ergo the bike comparison
). I managed a 167 in the last mile - but the back door speed was 177. See -- finally! some traction. Tomorrow I'll run on course #2 and see if it really is better. There's no question that the start line is better at #2, though. On the line at #1 there is mostly clean salt, but at the #2 line there are LOTS of black stripes left by spinning tires as the racer/push trucks left the line. Take that for what it's worth, but I'll run #2 tomorrow morning.