This is just a preliminary post about the week of test runs at Alvord. We unloaded and set up on Monday/Tuesday with first runs scheduled for Wednesday. The weather was beautiful and the track was really good with 8 miles of nice dirt. On Wednesday we made three runs but the first two showed a gremlin we had not seen since 2012. If you remember, we made several straight and true runs in 2013 with one run at 515. Jessi set a new record that year of 406.6001 and we were really hyped about running the next year. Just like Bonneville, the track conditions in 2014 were so bad we couldn't run so we had to wait another year. This year we were fully expecting some records to be picked off but it wasn't meant to be. The hydraulic system and most probably the hydraulic pump, periodically would not produce enough pressure to to even actuate our lifting mechanism, let alone run the steering cylinders. We worked feverishly to solve the problem and Wednesday afternoon I ordered a new steering valve and had it UPSed overnight to Burns where two of our guys drove the 260 mile round trip to get it back so we could replace it. At the time we didn't think our pump was the problem so we were concentrating on the valve. After spending all that effort the valve was the wrong one so we were unable to use it. We reassembled everything in a howling wind/dirt storm and by late on Thursday we pulled to the mile 0 to make another attempt at a run. All day the wind was blowing but it settled for a little bit. I had made three runs previously with the best one at about 300 MPH so this time we put Jessi in the cockpit so she could get some seat time. She blasted off the line like she was going for the record right then! Unfortunately, the same failure occured and she had to abort the run. By then it was late Thursday so we decided it was time to shut down for the evening. On Friday we worked on the problem all day but had no solution plus doing a major teardown in the field was out of the question. I made the difficult decision to call the event. We spent Friday evening and Saturday morning packing and we all headed home. Other than the steering issue, everything worked exceedingly well. On Monday morning I'll be on the phone with Eaton Engineering to talk about the valve and pump problems and get this fixed once and for all. I'm working a reschedue of the speed runs as soon as possible so we can get the job done and set our date to run for the absolute record. Many of you have been down this road so you know how my team and I feel about it. Yes, we're frustrated and disappointed but not disallusioned. We'll be back soon!