Tearing along the dotted line
August 8 2006 at 4:35 PM 

by Dirk Diggler

Of mornings and mayhem…..

It’s Tuesday am, and the opening flag of BL IIIII has been waved.
In very uncharacteristic-for-TeamStrange style, thunderstorms moved into the area, but fortunately not until the last of the riders bikes had been sequestered for the mornings start.

Then it was simply a game of hurry up, wait, eat a little, get a feel for your competitors leanings given last nights routesheets, say good bye to friends and loved ones, watch it pour, oh yeah, and wait. Right on schedule (at least OUR schedule) the anticipated Tuesday am routesheets materialized, the rains stopped, and riders were off. 

For some riders, “off” simply meant returning to their hotel rooms to hunker down over the new route sheet material and see what’s what. Some had other plans. MN’s favorite son John Coons (at least the favorite per his ever-present father Charlie) simply walked across the street, got a receipt and started his rest bonus. Crazy? Or crazy like a fox? We don’t know, but as a two-time overall winner of the Minnesota 1000, spectators are advised to bet against him at their peril.

Others viewed the 6:30 mark as lift-off time.

Legendary TeamStrange Staffer Keith ““Sleepy” Collins demanded that a bonus be made for him to be in the middle of nowhere because, as Keith says “I just really feel like making riders go to the middle of nowhere for no reason.” Keith’s bonus stop (108 miles from the rally start point) was open for the two-hour window of 9-11am. Keith’s departure from Rally HQ at 6:15am left him plenty of time to make the bonus location, but Keith reports being passed by riders about 20 miles from the bonus. The name’s Sleepy, not Speedy, folks. To raise anxiety amongst the arrivals, our Mr. C. elected to enjoy a nice leisurely break and not arrive at the bonus location until just a few minutes to nine. The bonus had a calming effect on the riders, he says. The early arrivals had nothing to do but stand around and wait until the 9am bell. Did they make their route decisions in too much haste? Should they have used this time back at the start reexamining the four routes? That’s an answer that they’ll have to answer to themselves somewhere in the next few days.

Richard Buber’s day started off with a bang—literally. Richard is a fierce competitor whose preference runs to older 1000cc Honda Gold Wings. This years bike showed up in town with something less (but not much less) than eight kajillion miles showing on it’s odometer. A few riders speculated on the oil smoke coming from Richards’s trusty mount. “Not to worry” Richard offered up. Me and her—we have an understanding. I keep her going and she’ll keep me going. This dynamic duo made it about 100 miles this am before the bike placed it’s ailment center stage---rumors point to a blown head gasket. 

Richard is reportedly already in the process of getting the ol’ girl to the Honda dealership where--it they have the parts--he’ll get it going. We are all hoping to see this couple of crowd favorites in Tombstone.

We’re currently in the TeamStrange Staff Van (dubbed the DIS-courtesy vehicle by one anonymous rider) streaking down to the ‘burg made famous by the likes of the Earps, The Youngers, Doc Holliday, et. al. In the meantime, we’ve continued the typical TS ways of competing with the riders. Within four hours of the start, Eddie had already collected the first sleep bonus, with John and David keeping an ever-diligent watch over the growing pile of fuel receipts. With a range of just under 300 miles at rally nominal, we’re being faced with fuel requirements unlike any previous event. In any case, our on-board rally scoring system has us with a commanding lead over the rest of the field, already bringing whispers of a doping scandal about to hit the event.

As of this writing (3:10 in this time zone), we’ve seen 5 riders at bonus stops, been passed by riders once, and passed one rider—on four different occasions.

C’est la vie.

See you tomorrow.. . 


Dirk

send your rider sightings, nude photos, sex questions and stock tips to:
askdirkdiggler@hotmail.com