Ride With Tank

Another great day of weather!

Lots of people out and about!  There was a guy today who had race plastics.  His “friend” took electric tape and wrote “gay” on the front number plate.  He rode around all day without noticing and everyone got a good laugh out of it.  When he did notice he was a really good sport about it, but I suspect there will be some retaliation.

Rumors of rain on the way were swirling around, but we decided on a night run to the overlook.  The weather up was nice and it was a great ride.  It started spitting an occasional drop of rain at the overlook so we decided to head back.  We didn’t get too far until we hit a downpour.  We got absolutely soaked.  My shoes were nearly dry and now they are soaking wet again!

I only took one good picture today, so here it is!

It rained all night and when my alarm went off this morning it was still raining, so I sut off the alarm and went back to sleep.

Things dried out about half way through the day, so i went out and did a little bit of exploring around Fontana lake.

Once the road mostly dried out I made a few passes on the Gap.  I asked Pip how long the store would be open and she said till 7PM.  I figured I could make it to the overlook and back before then, so I headed north.  I returned to the store at 6:45 and they were closed!  I was low on gas, so I headed to Robbinsville.  On the way there I got smoked by a girl in an economy car.

I stopped at the church on 129 and got this awesome picture:

I also stopped at the pizza shop and got an awesome pizza, so all in all the early store closure worked out well for me.

Today started out cloudy and foggy, but finally dry!

I got my first sunrise ride in, but I was not first on the Hill, the bear hunters were out and about long before I was.  I talked to one of the hunters at the overlook for a long time,  He was a nice guy and I learned a few things about the area that I never knew.

Once my coffee was gone I took my first ride of the year into Calderwood and saw all the usual turkeys and deer.

I did a little back and forth and then settled down for a while to watch the show with Craig, one of the Zee Photo photographers.  I did a little more back and forth then took a little rest.  A few guys I knew rolled in so I did some more back and forth with them. After they left I rode into Robbinsville to get pizza, but the pizza shop was closed.

All in all it was a pretty ordinary day for me on the hill, but an ordinary day here is about the best day I can imagine.

As expected, today was another day of rain.

Mark and the guys showed up some time after I went to sleep.  Somehow they managed to avoid the rain!

Absolutely nothing happened today except for rain.  Things were so slow they closed the store at 5PM.  I managed one ride to Fontana and one ride to the overlook.  I also took a few pictures.

Casey bought this to help pass the time.

Dan got a do.

Yesterday, during the MD250H warmup lap, there was a terrible accident that took the life of Peter Lenz.

I happened to be in the stands yesterday and I was one the closest spectators to the accident.  I was on the end of the South Vista, at the far end of the west side, sitting on the bottom row.  There were no reports at the track about his condition, so when I retured to my motel I found out via the internet that he had passed.

Today there are thousands of web sites with the story, but they all say the same thing, and some of what they say does not fit with what I saw, so I felt it was important to tell people what I saw.

I did not actually see Peter crash.  I saw his bike sliding riderless and then saw him on the ground.  He was in the front of a large group of motorcycles just exiting turn 4.  He began to try to get off the track, but saw that there was too much traffic so he sat there with his back to the traffic and held up his hands waving so he could be seen.  I was holding my breath hoping he would not get hit and most of the pack made it past him and it looked like everything was going to be fine.  The problem was, as time went on each oncoming rider was coming closer and closer to him, which gave the guys further back less time to react.  One bike dodged him, but there was no way for the bike behind him to swerve, and he hit Peter hard.  It was the most terrible thing I have ever seen, and I knew immediately that he was severely injured.

The corner workers got to him almost instantly.

They really did not give him any type of treatment.  They appeared to be talking to him, but I never saw Peter move.  The announcers had no idea the crash had happened, and were wondering out loud why they were delaying the start.  They also announced several times that Peter had not returned to the grid.  We kept waiting and waiting for an ambulance to show up.  A golf cart arrived, but it still appeared as if the officials had no idea there had been a crash.  Finally, the corner workers decided to put Peter on a stretcher and transport him with the golf cart.  As they were about to load the stretcher onto the golf cart, an ambulance finally showed up.  I cannot say with any certainty how long it took for the ambulance to arrive, but I estimate about 10 minutes.  The ambulance then left through the tunnel at the main gate to head for the hospital.

All the stories I have seen reported that CPR was started immediately, but I did not see any CPR until he was being loaded into the ambulance.  I am not saying it would have made any difference, but I felt the ambulance delay was totally unacceptable.

I also question why he was transported in an ambulance.  The MotoGP guys go out via helicopter any time they leave the track.  This wreck was so severe it should have left no doubt in anybodys mind that the injuries would be life threatening.  An ambulance ride through streets clogged with traffic for a MotoGP race seems like a very poor choice for somebody with life threatening injuries.

It appeared to me as if there was a severe lack of communication which lead to delays in getting medical treatment to the injured rider.  It felt like we were the only people who knew anything had happened.  The outcome could very well have been the same no matter how quick the response, but I believe these questions need to be answered.  Hopefully they will be answered by the investigation.

RIP Peter.