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I ran the Pony Express open road race this past Sunday, in Battle Mountain, Nevada, and placed second. For those unfamiliar, the Pony Express "race" is really a timed rally between two towns in Nevada on Nevada State Road 305, so you race against the clock instead of other cars. Each racer chooses a speed class, with choices from 95mph to 170mph, in five mph increments. The goal for whichever class you choose is to average exactly that speed, which means that faster is not necessarily better. The goal is to average as close as possible to the target speed class that you choose. The total distance is 83.55 miles, and I ran the 150mph class. To make a long story short, I ended up averaging 149.952mph, which was good enough for 2nd place in my class. This required speeds of about 165 in the straights, and the first 45 miles I averaged about 160. Race synopsis:
....hit a bird at ~130mph about half way point, and cracked/busted outer layer of windshield, didn't break completely out, never let off, kept going
....hit two more birds at about 150 about 3/4 point, no damage
....developed major oil leak about 5 miles from finish, kept going, figured it would go or blow
....finished race with average of 149.952, only 0.048mph off the target, got second place!
....car is back in the garage, awaiting teardown/inspection to determine cause of oil leak, which isn't obvious I plan to post some pictures later, but it will be a little while. In summary, the car ran beautifully, and the whole thing was a big challenge and a big blast. It's quite a ride to cover 84 miles in 33 minutes, especially on a real road! RSR
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