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Stage 10 , July 5
Today's course took us north out of Denver
and into Wyoming through a fairly low pass. The weather
was cool and clear, no thunderstorms or heavy winds that
are common this time of year.
The timed section took us straight up to
an alpine area in Wyoming that looked much more like Colorado:
an 11,000' pass called 'Snowy Range', and there was plenty
of snow still up there.
This is the section we were most concerned
about with the Rover, not having had an opportunity to
run it at such high elevations. As it turned out, we were
able to run posted speeds and hold them, right up and over
the mountain. There were a few steep hills that slowed
us briefly and we were easily able to compensate for. Once
again were impressed with Pat Young's engines and transmissions,
which really took a beating today. The truck continues
to run faultlessly.
If only we could say the same for the team
driving it! We were doing damage control from the time
we left the hotel lobby. Janet had mistakenly picked up
the wrong 'order of start', and we were a few minutes late
getting our instructions, something I don't think we've
ever done before. The left front tire had dropped about
5 lb., and we needed to find a gas station since our on
board compressor stopped in the middle of the process and
we lost 10 lb. in the process.
Our speedo calibration required a fairly
large change, which we did. While running the first leg
I noticed we were catching cars, and we realized we had
adjusted it the wrong way! Janet quickly adjusted by calculating
a double error, but in the process we missed the first
in a series of signs for speed changes, and we were hopelessly
out of sequence. We finally eased up to the car ahead of
us, then stopped completely to back up one minute. This
is all on a series of steep hills which were a challenge
to hold speeds on. As a final adjustment we took a 'hack'
(or 'verification' as some call it) off the car in front
by watching it pass a road sign and timing when we crossed
the same point. We determined that we were about 15 seconds
late, and began making up that lost time. Suddenly there
was a checkpoint, and we didn't get it all back. Damn.
The second leg was canceled due to road
repair, which was good because we were making dramatic
corrections: next was a lunch stop in Laramie, where we
set the speedo back to where it should be.
The third leg took us over the mountain,
and we whipped the Rover pretty hard to stay on time. An
emergency transit for road construction bunched up the
cars as we were escorted down a dusty, freshly graveled
road. Toward the bottom Janet determined that the cars
at the front of the queue would have a rough time getting
a good restart, while we should be OK. That's what happened.
A pile of cars coagulated the road around the restart sign
when Janet came running back yelling 'leave NOW'. The start
was a 'stop ahead' sign, followed logically by a stop.
The problem was there wasn't enough time to get to 50 at
that altitude. A few of us went back down the road, so
that we could hit the sign at 50. You have to picture the
road, cows mooing on the hillside, cars about 15 deep and
one on the road next to the sign to leave, and here comes
the Land Rover charging up at full throttle in the left
lane, with me waving oncoming traffic off the road, which
they did. We hit the sign at 48 and climbing, and :20 seconds
early. OK, this is good enough. Janet added that :20 to
the stop and we took off, running the rest of the leg normally.
None of the cars that had been running with us were anywhere
to be seen! We nailed this heroic effort, including the
climb to 11,000', in :02.
Our score was :33; had it not been for the
first leg error and lack of time to fix it once we figured
it out, it would have been the low 20's and a good score.
It was still decent, and we're very happy with it. We know
what we did, we had it under control, and the Rover can
climb mountains!
The front cars at the front of the field
had their challenges too: they ran into a cattle drive!
This was a 9:00 minute delay, and one wonders what the
fenderless cars front tires were throwing back on to their
crews...
The other element today was running for
hours on I-80 through Wyoming, and for those of you who
have done it, staying awhile is a challenge in itself.
Leaving the pretty bit behind, off the clock but still
having to get in to end the day, we cruised in a strong
headwind at 60-65 mph for two hours. The Rover did this
too, perhaps not easily, but faciley. Good crowd at Rock
Springs, and we'll see what new challenges face us tomorrow.
Hopefully we won't add to the drama with stuff we do to
ourselves!
Janet at work. Lapboard has the time of day clock with
sweep second hand, where she uses colored pencils to mark
things like when we leave on a start, speed changes, and
elapsed times. Also shown is the stopwatch for split times,
timing maneuvers, and running the speedo calibration. Also
prominent under her left hand is the route instructions,
the sole means of determining the route to follow and the
speeds to run them at. The first thing you do when you
get them is to make sure all the pages are there, and in
the right order! In this shot we are on an actual timed
section. The instruction at the top has been completed
and lined out. The highlighter is for special or unusual
instructions, and the chart visible on the bottom are our
speed and performance charts. The official Greatrace wristwatch
is on her left arm: no other timepieces are permitted,
nor calculators, GPS, or any other electronic device such
as a PDA or Blackberry (GPS is not precise enough to use
anyway). Nothing to it! In the rearview morror is a racer
not doing well, should be a minute back...
A checkpoint: in this case, the last one on Stage 10.
The green sign on the right is the official notification
and line marker, so you can see that it can't be spotted
from too far away. Trash cans, mailboxes, even garage sale
signs will send a chill you your spine. If you haven't
made your corrections by the time that sign is visible,
it's usually too late. The crew is on the left, with their
vehicle with sattelite uplink, and video camera to record
the exact second in tenths as we cross the line, encoded
on the tape. As we hold the speed, I call 'mark' to Janet
as we cross the sign, and the crew member yells out 'MARK'
as the audio confirmation on the video of the exact second.
Janet then writes down the time to the second. At lunch
stops navigators have their 'out' times in seconds written
on the palm of their hand to compare scores. If there is
a concensus, this is the only way you have of knowing how
you're doing during the day. The checkpoint data is sent
by uplink to the headquarters trailer and the score is
computed and logged well before we reach the finish line.
If our time doesn't match the time slip at the end of the
day, we can file for a challenge, but it is rarely if ever
off. The crew usually sits there for 3 hours, on the side
of thr road, rain, wind whatever. The teams chip into a
pot to buy them all a nice dinner at the end of the race.
They are all volunteers, and many come back to do this
year after year. We couldn't run the race without them.
Steve & Janet
Greatrace 45
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