The best news for me came out of the driver's meeting. A little
background first ... Mike Cook has been building a Honda race car for
John Hanson who is the manager of three of the Wendover Casino Hotels
so they have had a chance for some involved conversations. John is a
hot rodder, has owned several nice street rods and is sympathetic to
the needs of the racers. John has been doing some maneuvering to work
out a solution for housing problems.
The announcement was that Wendover is once again opening their arms to
the racers. They will no longer schedule poker tournaments or golf
tournaments on the same weekend as Speedweek. That should open up an
additional 500 rooms for the racers. The racers will start racing a
couple of days later in the week so the heavy hit for rooms will not
fall on the Friday-Saturday weekend nights when the casinos welcome the
big gamblers. The casinos will also not jack prices up on rooms like
they have been doing. The whole announcement should come from SCTA/BNI
with all the details in the next day or so as soon as they can put the
details on their web site. By working with both parties in this it's a
win-win situation. The racers give some by not needing the bulk of the
rooms until Sunday night and starting the racing on Monday when the
Casinos are not so busy and can give the normal prices on rooms. I'm
assuming the Utah side motels are going along with this on pricing too.
With two courses they are running a long course car then a short course
car on each course. That gives a better chance for the long course
cars to collect chutes and get off the course at the far end. The
course watchers are now the ones telling the starter the course is
clear although Glen and others in the timing tower can override them if
necessary. As with any new program there was some confusion to begin
with but by early afternoon it seemed to be working more smoothly. Ron
Christensen was hopping on the AM radio to keep track of who was
running and trying to give information on previous speeds and results.
There were not the longer waits we are used to on the single long
course. The lines funnel to course 1 and course 2 with a 40-50 yard
break between the cars on deck to run and the ones needing drivers to
suit up and be ready to actually run. It seemed like things were
moving more rapidly than in the past. I'm sure part of it was just
forcing people to be ready to run when their turn came.
Perhaps it is just me but it seems like there are a LOT of bikes this
year. I'll let the Amo boys comment on that since they follow the
bikes more closely.
mayf was 2 mph off his targeted speed in his afternoon run. sparky is
having spark problems with his lakester. KT got his milk, cookies and
hopefully his afternoon nap on Friday before the Camaro arrived on the
salt. Dave has been sleepless for days getting the engine built and
installed. Yesterday they were working on important details like where
the sponsor decals should be. Tonya was the designated decal gal from
what I could tell.
Watch for the Blowfish and the former Flatfire to put up some numbers.
They found an additional aero 30 mph on the Blowfish in the wind tunnel
and the liner formerly known as Flatfire is seven feet longer and is
now powered by one of the Dodge sprint car motors. The Rad Rides by
Troy gang have a challenge from Boyd Coddington for the "name" builders
this year. I didn't get close enough to actually see what Coddington
brought. The Ford Fusion car had a problem with a coolant pump that
required dropping the entire "engine" to replace. A design shortcut
that didn't work out as well as hoped for.
They have the hydrogen cars a long way away from the rest of the pits.
The pits may be 3/4 of a mile long ... I guess I should actually clock
the distance on the odometer.
Wes
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