8/11/06 Friday:
The rest of the trip is uneventful until we are left on the side of the road with a flat tire in Utah. When we finally arrive in West Wendover it's already dark and The Immortals are already there. It's more than a pleasure to see their Stude-powered rods -- it sort of makes you feel good to be alive. We checked into the rooms and checked out the rat rods that jam the parking lot of the Nugget for the first weekend of Speed Week:
1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10. Even a rodded Studebaker pickup
A,
B,
8/12/06 Saturday:
We pull onto the salt at 8AM. When we get to the pit location reserved by Dave Bloomberg (thanks Dave!) Dave is already there with his Avanti (The Avanti Kid). Also there are Dave's brother and nephew with The Panterra Kid, and the 455 Avanti. Jim Lange has not arrived because the rear end of his tow vehicle broke. We're hopeful that he'll arrive soon. Notably absent is Dave and Marie Livsey's Avanti. They're there, though and tell us of their own trailer woes. They'll be at The World Finals for sure, though. Bob takes a GPS reading in front of the Salt2Salt trailer and makes a mysterious phone call, then calls Kevin and Keith Wynn, a couple of lads from the Twin Cities who drove down to see the event and explore running a bike at it next year. Since they came down in a Jetta, we hauled down a couple of thrift-store mountain bikes for them. The bulk of the day is occupied in setting up camp and preparing the car for tech. We have a lot of problems with the dzus fasteners in the air dam! At the end of the day we top the fluids off and fire that bad boy up. It sounds great.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
8/13/06 Sunday:
We get in line for tech and breeze through then push into the prestaging line for a nice long wait. At the very end of the day we get into staging and Joe makes his first run. The car goes into impound.
8/14/06 Monday:
Joe makes a record return run. A hose blows off and he has to shut 'er down after the first mile. Still, it's enough to raise the record 10 MPH. Mark, Joe, and Bob are certain we've broken the motor because these are the exact symptoms of the two previous occasions in which the block has cracked. Greg, thinks not and is proven right when the cylinders are dry and the exhaust runs clean. We get back in line and wait.... Peter Boehm wanders by. We end the day 2 back from staging.
8/15/06 Tuesday:
Greg makes two runs. Tuning woes keep our speeds under 125. We end the day just a few cars back from staging. We'd have run again but wind at the end of the day forces long delays.
8/16/06 Wednesday:
Bob makes two runs. The first is great. On the second he can't keep the power up and turns out after the first mile. Are we out of gas? We change class to XO/BFALT and change our number to 1594.
8/17/06 Thursday:
Mark makes two runs. More tuning woes. We get it right again for Mark's second run and the car spends the night in impound.
8/18/06 Friday:
Mark makes a return run. We go to tech and certify both records. We leave for Minnesota at 11:30 AM.
8/19/06 Saturday:
We arrive home.
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