paulhus@euclid.DEC (N. CHRIS PAULHUS DTN 223-6871 MLO8-3/T13) (10/01/85)
Just got back from the IHPVA Speed Championships at Indy and thought some readers might like a run-down. The major factor this year was no new competitive entries (over 55 mph). The top speed run was a new record, of sorts. Carl Sundquist, the UCF National Sprint champion who rode the Brummer Lightening X-1 to 58.5 mph last year moved over to one of Terry Renno's Moby 3's. Unlike Moby 2, which used a stock Infinity recumbent chassis, Moby 3 used a special chassis and has a much smaller frontal area (probably less than X-1 or Bluebell II), giving away some length/weight. Two of Carl's runs were below the old record but a tail wind on the last run pushed him to 59.1 mph. The wind was strong enough to disqualify the run as a DuPont prize contender, though. But, you could say that it is a new single rider record, and a new bike record (Vector was/is a trike). So, the current record book looks like this: Fastest HPV ever: Vector Tandem 62 mph Fastest trike : Vector 58.8 Fastest bike : Moby 3 59.1 (wind >1.5 m/s) DuPont prize : X-1 58.5 and a faired Moulton became the fastest ever upright at 51-ish. Note: The DuPont prize is for either the first HPV to exceed 65 mph or the fastest contender when the prize period ends. $15K was put in trust in 1/84 (now worth about $17K). The period ends after 4 or 5 years. IHPVA signed a contract with EXPO '86 to stage the 1986 Speed Champion- ships at EXPO the third week of August. Indy Chapter of IHPVA will have a Regional Championship in late September '86. There's going to be an HPV Builder's Workshop at MIT in late Jan. '86. I also heard that there was going to be an event for serious DuPont contenders in Colo. (high altitude) next spring. As usual, the bikes blew off the trikes in the road races. Didn't hear the scores in the Practical Vehicle Competition. The EXPO organizers are supplying $1K travel expenses to the top 5 vehicles to get them out to Vancover. Man, that's gonna be a looong drive from Boston! N. Chris Paulhus DEC Maynard decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-euclid!paulhus
vector@inuxe.UUCP (Randal Blackwood) (10/07/85)
> > Just got back from the IHPVA Speed Championships at Indy and > thought some readers might like a run-down. ... I've got a complaint about the IHPVA Speed Championships, which were held here out at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I took Friday off work so that I could attend the events. I went out to the track in the morning and watched for about an hour (saw Carl go 58+mph). Then I left to go get some film for my camera. When I came back there was some idiot who wouldn't let me in. He had some piece of paper claiming that the event was not open to the general public. (Unless you call standing at the south end of the track where there was no p.a. and the vehicles were only going about 20mph warming up, open to the general public) I was UPSET. That was the stupidest thing I have ever heard of. Here is an organization that I would think would like all the publicity it can get and the event was closed to the public. Why I was able to get in once, and not a second time boggled my mind also. This whole incident got me so mad, that I didn't even want to go to the events on Saturday and Sunday. Any comments? Randy Blackwood inuxe!vector