The first 2 - delivering salt to Land's End - was from the 2014 Shootout. The racetrack was okay but the access was a hassle. The pic of Nancy and me and the trailer -- all three standing in water - is from WoS '06. Also: The photo of Nancy and me and Floating Mountain is from October '08 and the ucky weather pic says it's from November of 2009, but I've never been there in November, so what can I say?.
I can't find the photos or the dates of the Shootout when we and the vehicles were all huddling in one of the hangars at the airfield, waiting for the rain to stop, but I was there. And there was the WoS when the salt was too wet - but would probably dry out in time so we teched on the pavement approaching Land's End. I don't remember that date.
No pics from the times we got a call (six calls, in fact) as we were in Kansas headed for Bville: "Turn around and go home", they all said. Another time we arrived at Land's End only to be greeted with the same "Turn around and go home." That particular rainout is the one that convinced me to get my first cellphone.
And there was the time it rained just before SpeedWeek but we thought it'd dry out enough if we waited around for a few days. When I think of that one I think of sitting around the patio at the motel and shooting the breeze with Fred Dannenfelzer and a bunch of other SCTA folks. Just not the date.
In early October '04 I was out there on private time for a photo session. There was enough dry salt to make the runs they wanted, but while the helicopter was flying around with the photographer hanging out of it -- the dude spotted standing water (between the mountains and the access road we use to get to the pits) and asked me to ride THROUGH THE STANDING SALTWATER so he could video it. Yeah, I did it - - - but they were paying me well as "talent" so I could hardly refuse. BTW, the bike wouldn't run the next day. Many wiring connections had mysteriously turned green.
And then there was the famous year when everything flooded - so we moved the whole dang event - courses, equipment, and everything -- a mile or two to find and make a racecourse. That was 2007, I believe. And everybody agrees that we were skunked by rain in '14-'15.
There may well have been other times when the salt was too wet, and some of the events listed here might overlap. I'm listing these to show that rainouts aren't all that uncommon. All of these were since SpeedWeek '01. That was our first visit to the salt.
are dated Sept '09. The second pair
PS World Finals is cancelled by weather about half the time.
