Here are some
photographs of what was going on at the pits on Friday.
The story as I understood it was that a sensor on Steve Atlas' bike was registering abnormal values, which they tried to correct with a software fix. When that didn't work, they discovered a mechanical problem. The fix for that required a Dremel and a toothbrush. While the problems with the bike were being worked on, practice time had run out, so Steve was unable to run his bike. Once the mechanical fix had been applied, the software "fix" had to be undone, since that wasn't the cause of the initial problem. The amazing Rupal Patel (TTXGP organizer) managed to convince the race organizers to let Steve run a practice lap during the Vintage Bike race*, provided the bike was working by then. With the mechanical problem solved, things still weren't looking good as twisting the throttle resulted in little more than a twitch of the back wheel. Meanwhile, the vintage bikes were getting on the track and doing some practice laps. Finally, after much staring at laptop screens and manual wheel turning, the back wheel was working again. Just in time too, as the Vintage Bike race was about to start. Steve was able to run some practice laps and came back much, much happier.
* Rupal also gave the other teams the opportunity to run during the Vintage Bike race, although nobody else took that offer.
I have to say that it was very surprising to me how close Steve was to not having a practice round, and how he did manage to get that round in through the amazing efforts of both the Brammo team and the TTXGP organizer. Perhaps that's the nature of sportbike racing, but this is all new to me.
