The rally was well attended, with a total of 44 competitors in seven  classes. Riders came from Michigan (of course), Illinois, Iowa, Ohio, Indiana, Ontario, and all the way from Westlake Village, Calif. (via airliner), Jim Verheul, who brought his Bachetta Aero on the plane.

Thanks to Jon and Carol Stinson at the registration desk and Terry Gerweck doing technical inspections, registration went very smoothly.

One hour time trial
For the first event, the 1-hour time trial, 16 vehicles (streamliner, superstreet and multi-rider classes) competed in the first race. The other 28 (superstock, stock, junior and women's classes) competed in the second race. Participants circled the entire 1.412 mile track, including the hill about 30 feet high, and completed the lap they were on when the hour ended.

During the second 1-hour, Dennis Taves of Toronto had a bad crash on his much modified short wheelbase Lightning. A bolt holding the front fender in place came off, the fender fell into the wheel, the fender stays then jammed against the brake bosses and the wheel couldn't rotate. The result was a broken fork and rearview mirror and a scraped fairing. "I was doing about 44 kilometers (27 mph)," said Dennis, who suffered a lot of scrapes.

Average speeds were computed from lap counts and times. This year we again used the HPRA's lap timing system with transponders. This was very successful. Many thanks to Warren Beauchamp, Paul Pancella, and others who assisted in setting up and running the system.

Thanks also to Carol Stinson and Terry Gerweck for recording the results manually as a backup, and Don Barry for starting the race and displaying the flags at the finish line.

Hill climb/coast down
The hill climb and coast down were conducted together. Riders charged up the hill from a standing start and their climb times were recorded. They stopped pedaling at the top of the hill and descended the other side, coasting as far as possible. Riders marked their stop positions on the track with chalk and the order of finish was recorded.

 Being light and strong are the dominant factors in the hill-climb. In the coast down, weight and speed at the top of the hill are advantages, along with low aerodynamic and rolling resistance.

Thanks to Jon Stinson and Terry Gerweck for timing the event and recording the coast down finishing positions.

1-kilometer time trial
The 1-kilometer time trial was conducted from a standing start. A flat part of the track was used and

the start and finish lines were arranged so that the timers could easily see the start and finish lines.

Terry Gerweck and Bill Frey took turns timing alternating vehicles so we could have two competitors on the track at almost all times.

This year we used a different section of the track than in 2003 in order to put the sharpest curve at the beginning instead of the middle of the course.

Sprints
The first event on Sunday morning was the sprints. We used a 300-foot timed section, 50 percent longer than in past years.

Garrie Hill was unable to come from Ohio with the HPRA timing equipment, so stop watches, with those doing the timing at a location where the start and finish were easily visible. This system proved to be more accurate than the radar guns used in 2002 and 2003.

Thanks to Terry Gerweck for running the watches and Carol Stinson for recording the results.

Road races
The road race course was the same as in 2003, relatively flat, but with several turns. The course length was 3,295 feet (.624 mile, or just over 1 kilometer). Riders were timed by transponder. Thanks to Warren Beauchamp and others who helped run the system.

(see "Results" on page 3)