At Joe's pit in impound -- he's busy, but Stacey told me they'd found the tubing taking air from the intake on the front to the turbo -- was loose for the past few runs, so some of the ram air intended for the turbo has been blowing in Joe's face. Joe discovered that while waiting in line for the last run just a little while ago -- fixed the tubing, reduced the body lift he was getting, and you all see the result.
He's chatting with Mike Cook. Wonder if Mike will ask him to stay and run in the Shootout.
Yes, Mike would like him to run, and Joe would love to run -- to give Richard Assen some competition. And I would have been happy to start raising the $10,000 that it'd take for the entry fee (That number comes from Cook himself -- might even be a bit low).
But Joe can't run an FIM meet with the bodywork he's got on the bike. The tail is too long. It runs under the new SCTA rules. The old rules prevented the long tail -- and while those rules have been abandoned by SCTA-- they've been adopted by FIM. So -- don't check your piggy bank to help Joe enter the Top Speed Shootout -- the FIM wouldn't let him run the way the bike is built, and Joe isn't about to chop off his tailsection.
I still don't have Fred's speed. He's in impound as I said earlier, and so is the Blowfish and the Bockscar. I'm going to be packing up our pit for a while but'll keep the 'puter running for updates.
