Back to Battle Mountain - WHPSC 2008

A record that has stood since 1986 was broken tonight by Chuck Royalty in a vehicle designed and built by Raymond Gage. In fact, it was not broken, but shattered. Chuck's speed of 66.08 eclipsed the old mark of 63.01 by a full 5%, an almost unheard-of margin. Both Raymond and Chuck feel there may still be some improvement possible. We'll just have to see.

The highlight for me of every WHPSC is the show-and-tell session on Tuesday, and this year was no different. It is great fun watching the 3rd and 6th graders look over the machines, ask questions, and get autographs. An added touch this year was a slide (yes, real slides) presentation by Bill Gaines showing a little of the history of the IHPVA and some of the bikes that had gone before the those on display today.

Larry and Tom did some minor tweaking on the bike, then had the bad fortune of having a chain (one of four on the machine) derail about half-way through the course. The interior of the bike is so loud, however, that Tom in the rear could not hear Larry in the front saying that he could no longer pedal, so he kept pushing and could not understand why the speed was not increasing. He finally got the message, and they crossed through the time trap at 51.5 mph. That means more tinkering tomorrow to keep that from happening again.

Other Results:
Morning
Tanya Markham (Fred's daughter and former Junior record holder) - 57.97
Tomas Van Shaik (the third Dutch entry riding the same bike as Hans) - 62.57
Aaron Williams - 52.71
Jay Henry (17 year old who build his own machine, but also dropped a chain) - 27.35
James Schroeder - 49.63

Afternoon
Sam Whittingham - no time due to malfunction of BOTH independent timing systems
Fred Markham - 72.04
Ellen Van Vugt - 62.92
Chuck Royalty (deserves another mention) - 66.08
Aaron Williams - 54.16
Hans Wessels - 40.67
Warren Beauchamp - 61.80
Jason Erickson (brought a kit last year and did not run) - 60.19