I've been over there three times to be a "gatekeeper" course watcher for
their May event. After seeing how they handle communications (with the
little radios you use to keep track of your kids on the ski slopes or in the
mall) I'm not going back. It doesn't get better from year to year. They
have someone in an airplane cruising the course and three ham operators
along the course who are supposed to be the radio relay for the safety
people. The whole thing scares me. Ed seems to handle it just fine but I
respect his skills and common sense. There have been people killed during
these races. Tech inspection leaves me with questions about the degree of
scrutiny and skill of the inspectors. The "gatekeepers" as the safety
people are called are responsible for putting light chains and small
padlocks on three or four gates at each station (a mile or so apart) along
the totally fenced distance of the race, about ninety miles. Often the
radios don't work and the messages about problems have to be relayed down
the length of the course to the next ham operator. You're not supposed to
touch an injured driver, just report the problem. Cars are flagged off
every thirty seconds and you are racing against a target speed which you and
the tech people agree on. It's exciting to watch because of the volume of
traffic that is flagged off over three hours of the race. Other than that,
it scares me.
Racers who average 145 for the ninety miles have a hard time getting over
130 on the salt.
Wes
on 10/17/01 6:32 PM, Ed Van Scoy at edvs@uswest.net wrote:
> Mike;
> I run this race (at least I have 12 times) and I must say, it was responsible
> in
> part for my getting into LSR 10 years ago (it's a long story). SCTA/BNI
> doesn't
> have a copyright on "land speed racing" so I guess they can call it what they
> want - even though it is blatantly incorrect. What they are doing is Open-Road
> Racing, plain & simple. It would be no different if NASCAR suddenly decided to
> call Daytona the site of the "NASCAR Land Speed Record" It's BS, you and I
> know
> it, but it is a marketing tool for them. There is another "great sin" here:
> They
> have a 200 MPH club for anybody averaging over 200 MPH in their race (complete
> with shirts, hats etc.) As a "Red Hat Holder" myself, I am a bit peeved about
> this but again, without a copyright, there is no infringement on the
> Bonneville,
> El Mirage, Muroc, ECTA 200 Clubs they can call their club whatever they want.
> Personally, I haven't lost any sleep over it, I just grin knowingly when one
> of
> them brags about hitting 200 mph, downhill, on pavement, with a tail wind and
> 30
> mile start.....................
> Ed
>
> Mike D MEIERLE wrote:
>
>> I came across this in my surfing of the net.
>> http://www.silverstateclassic.com/results-record.htm
>> I can understand the claim for a public highway speed record, and I
>> respect the form of racing, but calling it a LAND SPEED record is
>> redundant. if not wholly incorrect, it's not LSR as it's defined to
>> me...
>> I know some on this list run in these races... thoughts...comments....
>>
>> --
>> Michael Meierle
>> SCTA-BNI/Sidewinders
>> #300 D/STR
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