"Mike and Dean's Excellent blokart Adventure"

Part 2

Last week we left our blokart heros stranded in nowheresville. This week they reach their destination and enjoy some great blokart sailing…enjoy!

Keep in mind this was supposed to be a trip that was filled with the promise of lots of blokarting. Unfortunately, when empty parking lots appeared, the weather was not fit for man or beast. But the boys were always at the ready with karts partially assembled in the back of the Blokart Mobile just in case.

Being late because of afore mentioned delays, a planned side trip to a high desert casino parking lot near a town called "El Centro" near the Southern California/Mexico border had to be cancelled. Mike and Dean knew their luck was finally changing a bit as a call from fellow blokarter Bryce Hodgson, told them the casino trip was off as the road there was closed due to snow! At this point the boys thought this most fortunate as they had not packed any tire chains for winter driving in mountain passages. Thanks to Bryce for waving them off in time as they would have surely suffered another delay spending a week in a "Nowheresville" mountain town, one day in March.

Finally, with good weather, no more mechanical problems, and making a mad 17 hour dash from Texas to California, our "one body short of a group" saw the night lights of LA, finally appear in the windshield of the Blokart Mobile. Said Mike, "Oh boy, now we get to navigate the infamous LA expressway system, and in the dark too!" Once again though, it was the Garmin Street Pilot to the rescue. They were able to home in on the hotel at Long Beach with pinpoint accuracy and arrived just past midnight to the sound of a rock band in the hotel nightclub!?!? (So much for falling asleep to the soft ocean sound of the Pacific!) No matter, exhaustion had set in. Our road warrior veterans fell asleep like children before Christmas with visions of Blokarting flying about their heads.

The next day, Friday March 24, 2006, brought clear skies and the warm California sun. The perfect remedy for a case of "badroadtripitis". After starting out the trip on March 19 with snow, fire, ice, hail, smoke and exploding transmissions, the promise of a whole long weekend of blokarting fun, got the boys up and out to the track early. The venue at Long Beach is a parking area right on the beach and the reliable sea breeze came in a bit early this day. PERFECT! The course was a reach-to-reach oval of sorts with a safety "bail out" ramp over the inner curbs at one end. Thanks to California Blokart Club's Jim Tolan and "Fast" Eddie Phirrmann's building skills, all 22 B-karters enjoyed a "tactical choice" on that corner as well as an "escape" option when more then two karts came into that corner wheel-to-wheel! Thanks to the City of Long Beach and all the sponsors and helpers that made this inaugural event a FUN one. As to be expected, with three days of fine weather, those wanting demo rides, out numbered the competitors. I think Brian, Joe and Bryce put through over 60 demo riders on Friday with similar numbers the next two days. 

Saturday brought a "racers wind" (15-18 mph) in the afternoon and the cornering got tight and interesting. With the wind blowing beach sand into the track like a desert sand storm, amazingly there were no major accidents/injuries. So the day was fun. With many hay bales lining the course, any "full contact blokarting" or other miscalculation, was rewarded accordingly with nothing more then bits of hay on your shirt and maybe a slightly bruised ego. Calmer winds on Sunday made it a day for the light weights. Prize giving and all karts and equipment were put away early as most headed for their favorite "watering hole" to share lies . . .er ah I mean stories and discussions about the weekends racing. A BIG "THANK YOU!!" goes to Brian and Joe Kent of Class Action Racing, and Bryce Hodgson for doing most of the work on this one. Working together they were able to organize the essentials (and then some) for the event and procure several sponsors also. Amazingly, the event went off smoothly and it was great exposure for Blokart and blokart sailing in Southern California. If you want to get involved in this one (and I highly recommend you do) keep about this time open on your calendar for next spring as word from a reliable source says the guys have bigger and better plans for the next Western Blokart Regional Race and Rally.

After Long Beach, many of the group packed it up and headed for Ivanpah dry lake bed on the California/Nevada border right along Highway 15. However, Mike and Dean now feeling jipped out of their trip to the high desert casino because of the snow, created an alternate plan. Mike and Dean's Excellent Blokart Adventure found them at El Mirage dry lake bed all day Monday, joined by John Pearson and Warwick "Wick" Bryant from Washington State. This day was a bonus for Wick as the day before; John was dropping him off at the airport for his scheduled flight out. But thanks to considerable prodding by John, I am happy to report Wick made the correct "blokarters choice" and turned around and headed for El Mirage for one more day of fun in the sun. Hey Wick, we like how you establish your priorities!!! So the "nomadic neighbors" Mike and Dean were joined by John and Wick and enjoyed some of the smoothest dry lake bed blokarting in the country. As Wick and John had to finally succumb to the realities of their "other life" and catch the last plane to Spokane, they left the boys in a cloud of playa dust from the car bumper to carry on their "Blokart Quest for Best Places to Sail". So with fond memories of El Mirage shimmering in the distance, at the end of this day, the Blokart Mobile was loaded up and the Street Pilot co-ordinates were set to once again join the other blokarters and a group of kite buggy folks in "Buggy Town" for the NABX kite buggy week at Ivanpah.

At the end of a hair raising night ride on two lanes Highway 15 to Vegas (known to the locals as the "Highway of Death") the Blokart Mobile made it safely to Buffalo Bill's casino and Ivanpah for the next 5 days of "play on the playa" Tuesday morning brought rain and temporary closure of the playa. Undaunted, our temporary travellers, did a 180 and landed at Roach lake bed just north of the three casinos at Primm. Tis day proved to be the strongest wind on their quest. A forecast of 15 to 25 sustained, with gusts to 45 and a high wind advisory, brought the promise of a white knuckle day with maximum "pucker factor!" (Where is that 2M when you need it!!!) After it got to be too much for most of the kite buggyers, Mike's newly designed POD "DarKart" came into its own.  After a couple of B-kart standstill capsizes in camp and several crashes by fellow B-men out into the sage brush, Mike and DarKart got "hooked up" on a few gusts that forced the sail to luff while going downhill!!! Some of which was caught on video but dead batteries on the GPS prevented DarKart from proving top speed honors for the day.

Top "CRASH" honors for the day went to Dean Kitchen - "Best use of sage brush for sudden stopping" - Ron Golden "Best use of a blokart for sage brush shredding" (Both caught on video) But the best one went to Lee Boukout, "Best use of a blokart to crack open your helmet, bend your glasses, cut your face, and lose a perfectly new "Blokart" wind indicator". Sorry Lee, too far away to get any of it on camera.  A good part of the day was a lesson in attempting to handle the severe understeer that seems to increase proportionally to the wind velocity. The B-group packed it in when their sheeting hands numb and tended to remain that way. Can't wait to see the video!!!     

Wednesday brought more rain well before dawn and after a slight delay, Ivanpah dry lake and "Blokart Playground" was finally open for business. Left over wind and gusts from the day before made the morning the fastest of the day.  With fresh batteries in the GPS, DarKart recorded a top sustained speed of 46.2 mph over a measured half mile and could do no better the rest of the week. Jason Robbins recorded 67 mph in a big "wind tunnel" type gust during this day. Said Jason, "It caught me by surprise and bent the all fiberglass mast way over. I steered down to keep it upright and then it was over as quickly as it hit. To my amazement, 67 was the top speed picked up on my GPS when I finally looked at it back at camp." Nice going Jason! Some of us checked Jason's blokart saddle for further evidence - none found.

Look for the exciting final instalment next week!