Wednesday, May 24, 2006
The 2006 Headwaters Rally
Had a great weekend. Drove "up nort" to Park Rapids Minnesota. Participated in the Headwaters Rally. What fun! If you're a motorhead, you've gotta check this action out. The way it works is the race consists of a series of "stages" run on state forest roads. Each one is between ten to 30 miles in length, depending on the layout. The cars are started in one minute intervals, and the object is to cover that stage in the fastest time possible. No speed limits, no penalties for going "too fast" like on public highway rallys. Nope, this is honest "balls to the wall" type racing. Then, after the car completes one stage, it moves to the next. The trip between stages IS conducted on public roads, so therefore the cars have to be street legal and licensed, and they must observe the speed limit on the transit between stages. If the time between stages is too short, they've broken the speed limit and are penalized. No one did that this year. After all the cars finish the stage, they transit to the next stage, group up, and are started in one minute intervals again. Two minutes if dust becomes a problem. Everything is done to a strict schedule, as the stage roads are usually old logging roads that are normally open to the public, but are closed for the race. That means we stick to a schedule, and laggards are usually penalized if they take too long due to damage or whatnot. This year, I worked the starting line for stages 2 and 8, 8 being the final stage. The weather started out iffy, with a brief sprinkle about 2 hours before the race started. But then the skies cleared out and it turned into a beautiful northern Minnesowtah spring afternoon and evening, with daytime temps in the upper 50's and nighttime temps in the mid 30's. Skies so clear at night that out in the country like we were, away from city lights, the stars were incredible. We were seeing stars, shooting stars, satellites, gawd it was wonderful.
Here are some pictures I took when able. Check out the clear blue skies.
Here are some pictures taken by a pro photog that turned out pretty well.
It's fun to go watch racing at a track like Elko speedway, and such. But there's something about actually being involved IN the race that makes it better.
"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That's funny ..."
Isaac Asimov
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....with daytime temps in the upper 50's and nighttime temps in the mid 30's.
Um....Dood? That is freakin winter weather to us!:) AWESOME pics!! Wow! Glad it was a "day" for ya!
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Um....Dood? That is freakin winter weather to us!:) AWESOME pics!! Wow! Glad it was a "day" for ya!
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