Sam here. Commiserations on the weather guys, we had just the opposite.
Saturday started very cold and windy hence wearing my jacket over my leathers and now for the truth.
My first pass on the Harley was just a cautious pass to check the bike out, I eased it off the line with no problems.
After going in to third, it popped out and lost me quit a bit of time and returned one of the slowest runs I have done in a long time, 14.535 at 159kph.
OK, it was just a soft pass to asses the bike which must have weighed in at over 600lbs but with plenty of punch and then the rain came.
the sad thing was, it never let up all day so I was going into Sundays eliminations without a clue what to dial in.
with nothing to do, the beer started flowing along with the 10.97 157mph post.
Sunday turned out bone dry with temps reaching 25c and with a rather warm cross wind. I took the plunge and dialed 12 dead thinking it might just run a low 12 if I gave it a bit more stick off the line and made sure of the gear changes.
I was up against the top runner with multiple championships to his credit but remembered the words of Jon Weeks, treat it like any other time trial. I ran a 12.314 at 188.03kph (116.836mph) to his winning run of 11.408 on a 11.10 dial.
.054 added from the light meant I lost by 6 hundredths of a second
but hey ho, I enjoyed myself, I was in good company and all time PBs in both ET and terminal speed can't be that bad.
Juha made short work of the opposition with a series of 9s runs but lost out in the final to a red light, perhaps it was justice for winding you all up with the 157mph post.
And to finish, thanks for the kind comments on that bogus run, you are true gentlemen and good friends.
Sam.
