Several practice runs were held on Saturday and Sunday morning to allow the drivers and trial timers some practice. Thanks to Rolly Evans and Dave Nergaard we had electronic timing this year and also timed with digital watches that hopefully would start when the starting flag dropped---the background haze made observance of the starting flag(white) difficult and all times listed are of the electronic times. Thanks to Tom Stoecker, Richard Olivier, Peter Heid, Rachael Cantor for enduring in the heat at the finishing line and recording the times and speeds.

A radar gun was donated by Peter Heid for the event and the fastest speed noted.

The starting line was moved down from last year to make sure adequate stopping distance was available in case a Vanderbilt Racer showed up, therefore the times this year were on an average lesser gradient from last year and should be taken into consideration when comparing to last years times.

On occasion a driver would not agree to pull up to within two feet of the starting line and therefore some of the posted times were faster, due to a rolling start, than the actual times. This will be corrected next year. Most drivers took the allowed three runs and their average and fastest time noted. Walter Winship took only one run and only one run was recorded for Rolly Evans out of three---sometimes providing the equipment does not mean that justice will prevail! Our timing crew did the best they could under the hazy and hot conditions. Trials were started at 10AM Sunday morning.

Dave Nergaard's performance was with the new piston valve block and it can be seen from the ending speed of 42 miles per hour that it certainly breathed free at speed. Dave actually did one run with the burner off, this 660-foot sprint is much more dependent upon boiler reserve than firing rate. He had a 14-foot superheater with 630-650 degrees steam temperature and ran two runs non-condensing.

Allen Blazick pushed the Mountain Wagon and with its big engine, boiler and gearing advantage could accelerate quickly but top speed was limited to 31mph at the finish line.

The Kirkpatrick 1902 6 horsepower is always a wonder to watch, it must jump from 0 to 30mph in the first 50 feet and then stays there averaging almost 30 miles per hour with an ending speed of 33 miles per hour. Visions of 100 years ago pass thru my mind with people being awe struck at such a sight. At the start of one run it appeared the front wheels almost came off the ground, Sam needs to put on a few pounds to hold it down!

Herman Beyerdorffer had the second fastest speed at the finish line, crossing at 37 miles per hour and ran very consistent times for his three runs without problems.

Rolly Evans had the timers miss his first two runs and he may have done better than the 15.46 seconds recorded on his third run---his car ran very well, missed his speed also!

Mark Cantor had the disadvantage of a very tall gear ratio and was noticeably slower off the line than the 1.5/1-geared cars, possibly he would have had the edge if the race were 1/4 mile long as the car would have been able to come into "stride".

Bill Cook did very well with his 10 horsepower car and it was appreciated that his guest entered the Rolls Royce for comparison sake. It was good to see Walter Winship out with his magical restoration of the SV, he was running only 400psi boiler pressure and did not press his car, and his new drive gears were a big improvement over the original gearset. Jerry Hackett, always ready for a good race, had burner and fuel problems, we know that his Stanley Bus can be considerably quicker on a good day but isn't that the story of all steam cars, great days and days on the other side of the spectrum.

Thanks to Peter Heid for the generous gift of the radar unit, measuring the speed at the finish line adds another dimension to observing the performance of these magnificent automobiles. His much faster first run was not recorded as the timing device was not triggered by the light racing bicycle dare-say it was under 20 seconds.

Greatest thanks to Allan and Shirley MacNicol for sponsoring this event.

12 September, 2002

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