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The latest update as of June 27, 2010
The morning after the night before
Oh man, let's just call today a wash and start over again tomorrow. Can't really do that though as there's still the final day of the Nitro Jam Rocky Mountain Nationals waiting for me at Castrol Raceway. Thankfully we won't be revisiting the "Morning of Fire" as we did just nine hours ago, when the jet trucks closed the show at a little after midnight.
In a world first, and possibly last, both jet trucks - all five engines worth - ran side-by-side and to say the tension in the control tower was palpable is understating the situation immensely. From the first set of burner pops that nearly shifted the building off the foundations to the windows miraculously not landing in our laps and faces to the massive mushroom clouds of partly burned kerosene that annihilated every mosquito between Spruce Grove and Red Deer, it was a show to be remembered for the ages.
The bonus? We get to do most of it all over again today, with an earlier start of 11:00 am and a scheduled finish around 4-ish or 5-ish as this event is wont to do at times. But if we're going to get there and cover the race, we'd better finish packing up at the hotel, grab that complimentary "breakfast" and head for the track. Next update in an hour or three, depending on how busy we get and how quickly. Enjoy your Sunday!
We've just finished posting our first report of the day on the Sunday Report page so check it out. Next update in a "while" or possibly, "quite a while". Stay tuned!
It's all over... finally
As you'll see by checking out the event coverage pages for Edmonton, we've been very busy over the last four days. The race is almost done as I write this; almost, as in all the pro cars have run their finals, all the semi-pro racers have finished their racing, and just a few sportsman finals remain to be run. Then it's time to pack up, put the car in gear and hammer it down until we get to Vancouver in the morning. It's gonna be a ride.
There's no time to get any of the photos from today or most of yesterday's posted and there's still lots of blanks in the story that need filling in, but our priorities right now are getting home. Tomorrow and Tuesday are days off work for me and I'll get all our Edmonton coverage wrapped up then. Promise. Not like the old promises which still haven't been fulfilled years later, but promise as in it will get done. Very soon.
And that's it from the River Cree Resort & Casino IHRA Nitro Jam Rocky Mountain Nationals from Castrol Raceway in Edmonton. Almost forgot: the race was presented by Mopar and E3 Spark Plugs. Oh, oh, very late update: weather is closing in and they're predicting heavy rain in ten minutes. Oh boy, here we go again. Maybe it will wash the mud off the car though.
To see previous updates go to the What's Old page