Final Episode of Mike and Dean’s Excellent Adventure

Last week the boys were at Ivanpah with plenty of wind……

Thursday brought the arrival of an exhausted Brian and Joe Kent (Class Action Racing) just in from the Western Regionals in Long Beach.  Brian reports city officials at Long Beach were most co-operative and very glad to have us there.  With that dependable sea breeze, long range plans are to make it a regular venue for the California Blokart Club and to hopefully continue to build on the momentum at this most excellent site. It meets all the criteria. Good surface, dependable wind, close to a major airport, and modern facilities nearby.  A bonus is, the pavement is right on the beach in a major population centre.  A real plus for Blokarters and Blokart to help build the sport and keep us in sight of the blokarting public.

Back at Ivanpah, with the arrival of "Fast” Eddie, Jim Tolan and sons in tow, the "Blokart Fleet" was there in force.  With the "Wind god of the Playa" smiling on them, informal racing got under way - DESERT STYLE! High speed runs, tight sliding cornering and clouds of playa dust maxed out the "blokart grin" factor for all. Using orange cones, the racers quickly had a half mile windward/leeward course, with starting line at the bottom mark.  Using the honours system for starting, the dial up was the most important and critical part of any race.  Four laps made a race (experience tells us many blokarters tend to loose count after 3!!!) with Brian Kent leading the way for most of the races.  With riga-mortis setting in on their sheeting hands, tires starting to show through to the belts and bearings crying "mercy" from the fine talcum powder like desert dust, the "fast pack" headed in for the closet watering hole for more lies…ah...I mean "good natured talk" about the day's racing.

More great conditions on Friday and Saturday allowed for some performance/speed testing with Jim Tolan and Mike Moody trading B-karts for a race or two.  Jim was not having his fastest delay and wanted to see if it was the fault of his neat B-kart "Jet Jammer" or that troublesome "loose nut" on the end of the steering "T". He is happy to report it was just the "loose nut". He is working on getting fixed in time for PACRIM at Perth in Western Australia. Good Luck to Jim and "Fast Eddie" and all our Kiwi friends who are going over there. I know the boys "down under" are fast and tough on other racers on the race course. No quarter given- none expected. With their own racing area for the week it promises to be another week of "full contact" blokarting. Wish I could be there. Can't wait to see some action pics and video.

With Ivanpah disappearing in their rear view mirrors, Mike and Dean headed North through Vegas, their sights set on Utah and the salt flats at Bonneville. After a stop at the mammoth and impressive Las Vegas Motor Speedway complex featuring four full sized professional race courses, the always adventuresome pair found a NASCAR Driving School in full swing. With little encouragement, Dean pulled out his wallet and was soon screaming around the high banked oval at 180 mph in the passenger seat of a NASCAR style racing machine. Dean says he felt perfectly safe until after the ride when he found out his "professional" driver was actually just a local school teacher worked an extra job at the track on Sunday's!!!!! And he hadn't even stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night! Any way, for Dean fast is now 180 mph and he can always lay claim to having gone that fast.

So with another "excellent adventure" in the memory banks and another half day and night of pavement pounding, our high banked speedsters made it over the Rockies (no snow this time - imagine that!)and landed at Wendover, Utah. Wendover is the closest town to Bonneville Raceway on the Bonneville Salt Flats. With the morning sun a blaze, one of the first things I noticed as I stepped onto the salt surface, was the absolute quiet. So quiet one can literally hear one's own breathing. A disquieting feeling…for the disciples of land speed records, this place is truly hallowed ground. A desolate stark, bright white surface beautifully stretches to far away mountains and beyond to finally disappear into the horizon. This majestic spot just oozes with history. No signs, no markings, just the memories of names like Munroe, Breedlove and John Fitch who at 87 years young still races a Gull Wing SL on this spot every year. Names and faces flash across my mind and in the spirit of speed; seem to rise from the salt like shimmering ghosts of "speed weeks" from the past.

Back to reality with no wind at the present on the flats, our "never say die" duo headed for the nearby high ground for a photo op. and to await the 15-25 mph SW that was forecast but never came. Never ones to pass up an opportunity though, Mike and Dean rigged "DarKart" once more at the top of the only mountain road to the summit. Rigging the 3M as an "air brake", Mike hoped to use it for some kind of speed control for his impending "suicide run" and last of this adventure. Now, "mountain blokarting" is a bit difficult to describe. A cross between a roller coaster that only goes downhill (slow at first then faster and faster) and a feeling close to absolute terror! Forget the sail, too busy to think about it. White knuckles on the "T" and try to keep it on the road! As it turns out, the soft and loose gravel on each side of the road (discovered by accident) worked somewhat as slowdown device. "FILM AT ELEVEN ...." thanks to Dean for trying to follow in the Blokart Mobile - steering wheel in one hand and video cam in the other! With the invention of this new sport (Mountain Blokarting!) I suspect Paul and the guys over at Blokart, will have to consider expanding the company warranty (yes, I too was surprised they have a limited warranty!)

The rest of the trip was an 1100 mile sprint back to Michigan as the strange magnetism of the salt flats makes one want to linger too long.  Our travelling two-some, finally landed at home about 2 AM with happy exhaustion and satisfaction that two "some-day-to-be-grownups" can have fun blokarting while travelling across this vast and varied continent, re-living the feelings of their youth as each day they had awaked with the excitement of another new adventure. Could it EVER get any better? There is always next year and the Blokart Worlds some time in the future. Stay tuned.