Descent of Speed

Our goal this morning was to get to the pits about 8, despite the fact that racing started at 8. We set our pit up, then waited for a bit for the head honcho Jim. He implied he would swing by. About 9, we hadn’t seen him, so we grabbed some breakfast. While we were eating Neil and Roland walked over to the start and found Jim, and were informed we could run on the long course.

Our first goal was to get Jenna up to speed, so we took her over to the short course. While we were in line, Neil suggested we get Rolands luge reteched. It took a while to get the machine reteched. Meanwhile Jenna’s first run was a 107.  I took the luge over to the long course to wait in line. Jenna’s luge was regeared and she took another run. This time doing 112.

We were in line for the short track on the long course, next to a couple of stream liners and several other pretty cool cars, but we were the center of attention. When we finally got to the start line, the vehicle that ran in front of lost something, creating a half hour delay. The spectators at the start line swelled to over 100 people, mostly to watch us run. Roland mentioned later than on Jenna’s last run, there were only a few cars running, and when she got to the start a dozen people materialized out of no where to watch.

Roland took off and immediately had some wobbles. It looked like he got it settled down, when he veered off course about 3/4 mile down. Turns out a large bubble had formed in one of the wheels! With no backups, it looked like Roland’s 2008 visit would be over. Neil and I headed backed into town to see if we couldn’t find someone to fedex some wheels. Unforunately at this point it was almost 3 MST. Roland stayed to once again change the gears, and get Jenna another run.

We were unable to find anyone who sells the wheels, that were open. It seems like all of the high performance companies were on the east coast. We got a hold of one person, he said he could overnight them tomorrow to arrive on Saturday. But we did find someone in Salt Lake City who may end up building new wheels for us (or perhaps building something to use different wheels)

 Jenna did another 112 MPH run. Tomorrow we are going to concentrate on getting her up to 120, while Neil drives into SLC to see if these new wheels will work.

I ran into someone at the hotel tonight. He was telling me that this was his first year, but he said he knows a feeding frenzy when he sees it. And it is a feeding frenzy around us. The powered luges are the star of the show.

Ever since I was a little kid I’ve wanted to visit the Salt Flats, the place where the Blue Flame set the land speed record. I finally got my chance when a friend entered his powered street luge in the World of Speed.

We flew into Salt Lake City, about 2 hours from the flats, yesterday. I got into town just before noon, but my friend, Roland didn’t arrive until sometime after 1, with 1 bag missing. After dealing with the airline for about an hour we first stopped by the freight company to pick up the two luges. Roland would run one luge, with a 1200cc motor, and his daughter Jenna would run the other with a small 100cc gokart motor. We loaded the crates in the van then made quick stops for a battery and then some food. Then we hit the highway heading to Bonneville. On the way Roland spent some time putting the luges together. The plan was to get the vehicles through tech before 6pm, and it was close to 4, and we were still an hour away. We made it just in the nick of time.

Today we got up early. The riders meeting was at 9, and we would start running at 10. It was amazing seeing the variety of vehicles. Regular cars, speciality cars, motor cycles, motorized bar stools, electric cars. There are two tracks. One track the 130 club runs in. This is a short track and is 1 mile long. The 130 club has a speed limit of 139.99. The goal is to get two runs between 130 and 140. There is a 150 club, with a speed limit of 159.99 and I guess an open class with speeds in the 200 that is 3 miles long.

We got to the line fairly early. The first run is supposed to be a test run, mainly to get the driver used to driving on salt. It is easy to spinout on the salt, so you need to gradually ease into the run. The first run is supposed to be a sub 100 mph run. Jenna took her first run, she hit a top speed on her GPS of 96, but got a report time of 89. Roland took his run and “forgot” to take it wasy hitting 109! Roland lost the nut on his shifter link. We spent some time getting a replacement bolt.

They lined up for their second run. Jenna took off and hit 103 mph, but stalled out. We had to drive out and pick her up. Turns out she ran out of gas just before the end of her run. Her GPS read 109. Rolland lined up for his second run. He was veering off to the left a bit, but got it lined up and clocked the highest speed of the day (on the short course) at just over 138!

We decided to take a break for lunch and then tweak Jenna’s engine a bit. Back at the start line we had to wait for a while because apparently someone ran over the timing lights! Jenna took her 3rd run, she hit 95 at the half mile mark but  only 113 for the run. Roland took his 3rd run, he needed a second 130 run to qualify for the 130 club. His goal was 135, and he hit it!

It was back to the pits to work on the gearing for Jenna’s vehicle, but Roland was going to be done for the week, unless we could convince them to let us run in the 150 class. We figured it would be an uphill battle, as they didn’t even want us to run there at all. We were told that everyone thought we were professional, and looked good. The head guy was told by several spectators, that the spectators thought the organizers were crazy for letting the luges run. Until the spectators saw us run. They saw how smooth Roland looked, and they were amazed. It looks like we’ll be running in the 150 class tomorrow!

So the day was over for us, although cars were still running. There are three more days of riding. We were invited by our neighbours for a BBQ. They had brought a small lawnmower (that did 85!) in a huge 18 wheeler. But they had a huge spread, beef, shrimp, crab legs, potatoes, corn. It was an amazing meal. They invited several other groups by, including the US Army who was showing off the OCC choper.

What an amazing day! I didn’t get a whole lot of time walking around the pits, and most of the cool cars run on the long course. Hopefully tomorrow when we run on the long course I’ll see a few more cool cars!

Once again I am making use of the free wi-fi at Avis before heading to Eastbourne.

My flight arrived late Saturday evening, which is the worst way to fly overseas, leaving at 11:00pm and getting in about 5pm. I dropped a couple of bags off in left luggage and then discovered the London Underground goes all the way out to Heathrow. In the past I’ve taken the Heathrow Express, which is a direct train from Heathrow to Paddington. 26 pounds one way, 32 round trip. Takes about 15 minutes. Problem is I still have to take the tube to Victoria station, which takes about half hour and runs 4 pounds. Or I can take the tube into town, with one change to Victoria. Takes just over an hour and costs 4 pounds! Unless you are travelling at rush hour this is the way to go.

Sunday I visited a friend out at Oxford. you have to take a bus, and apparently it takes 2 hours! My friend suggested I get on the bus at Marble Arch. After walking there from my hotel beind Victoria Station, I noticed the bus starts at Victoria. Oh well, it was a nice walk. I walked about 1k through Hyde Park with a bunch of women doing a 5K walk.

Oxford is a nice little town. The university is spread through most of the town, or rather the town is spread through the university. Most of the buildings are build out of yellow limestone and look impressive. Apparently Oxford was spared a lot of destruction during the war.

Monday I want out to Hampton Palace. This is an odd palace that served as the monarchs summer home for several centuries. Apparently though each generation wanted to rebuild the Palace. Sometimes they didn’t have the money and only rebuilt part of it. The Palace is bsaically in two styles, but also has several throne rooms. I felt like it was three or four palaces in one. The gardens surronding the palace are absolutely beautiful.

The worlds largest grape vine is at the palace. The grapes are havested for two weeks out of the year, late August and early Sep, so I bought a bunch. They are very tasty.

Tuesday morning I visited Buckingham Palace. The Palace is open to visitors for two months. I’ve been to a lot of Palaces over the years, most of them were used a couple hundred years ago, and the rooms are decorated as one particular monarch liked them. But Buckingham is still in used. The rooms are decorated how they are being used today.

The main banquet room is set up for a state dinner. They start setting the table TWO days in advance. Every napkin and plate is measured to sit precisely on the table! I’ve visted London several times, always seeing the outside of Buckingham. Taking a trip through part of the interior was definitely worth it.

I bought on a combined ticket entrance to the Queen’s Gallery and the mews. The Queen’s Gallery is small and houses some of the better items from the Queen’s collection. They also had a temporary exhibit some nature paintings. Some of them were from Da Vinci, and these were amazing. In general the gallery is just too small to really be worth it.

The mews are cool, showing off some of the royal coaches and a limo. But in general the visit wasn’t really worth it. Although the Gold Coach is definitely over the top. They claim is they need to start stopping the coach 30 yards before where they need it to stop, and it only moves at walking pace!

After a quick lunch I was going to spend the afternoon walking around town. I have a book with some really nice walking tours. But it started to rain. I decide to catch a movie instead to get out of the rain. The movie was 13.50! Which comes to about 25 USD!

Before heading out this morning I wandered around Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathederal, and took some pictures of Big Ben.

The sky is gray, but it doesn’t exactly look like it will rain at the moment. Hopefully it stays that way.