AFM Round 5

I raced last weekend. I really thought I was going to take home a trophy, and I almost did. Here's a brief race write up of the 500 Twins race.
I gridded up in 5th just behind class leader John Forman. I thought I might really have something for him this weekend. Two board, and my visor clicks into place. 1 board, and I put the bike in gear. The one board goes sidewaaaaays! Green flag and we're off!
I got a great start but for some reason turned chicken as we powered through T1, and 3 guys came around me. I was mad at myself so I stayed on the gas through T2, and ran it up the inside, cutting off my friend, and teammate Eric. That put me in 4th with the "Lenny" in front of me. I was right behind Lenny through turns 4, and 5, and was pulling around him through 6. His bike has some serious motor work so he pulled a little gap on me in the short straight into 7. I knew I had him though because he didn't pull enough of a gap, and as I got on the brakes much later, and harder than him I went right by him into 7.
That's how it would be for the next 6 laps. I'd keep him behind me for most of the track, and then he'd gain on me between 6, and 7, and lose it all on the brakes. A couple times I saw him try to show me a wheel, and I'd move over a little, and get on the brakes blocking him.
I really had it until the last lap. That's when my bike overheated. Bummer....
My bike started running rough, and I knew from the droplets on my face shield what was happening. "come on baby one more lap, just hold it together" I was yelling in my helmet. But it was not to be. Into T6 "The Carousel" my engine started to sputter, and he got around me going into 7. I got on the brakes really really late, and literally pushed him wide. I had regained the position for a brief moment for when I twisted the throttle my engine died.
ugh
I coasted for a few minutes, and considered pulling off the track, but instead I tried to start it, and indeed the bike fired up, and I limped it home running on one cylinder for a 4th place.

I think I know what's up, and I will make some changes this week. I've got another race in two weekends so hopefully this time we'll bring it home.

Make it RED!

When Virgin America finally got the OK to start flying their new airline out of San Francisco airport they wanted to make a local statement. Something non traditional to let everyone know they where here. So when they contacted the mayors office of SF they where told in no uncertain words that if they wanted to do this they'd have to work with Hartmann Studios, and in turn Impact Lighting. So I got the call to make San Francisco Red.
OK what exactly did they mean? Well threw out some pretty wild ideas: Golden Gate Bridge, Trans America building, City Hall, Coit Tower. I thought "yeah right" everyone wants to talk big. Well it turned out they didn't just talk. So we settled on 5 civic structures. SF City Hall, The Opera House, the Veterans Building, the monument in Union Sq, Coit Tower, and The Ferry Building. Oh, and as a bonus they didn't want to disturb the daily activities around these buildings so could the lights go away each night?
Um Yeah, sure. ..?
So how does one light up 5 major civic structures for 5 nights in a row and not have any lights visible during the day? The answer: Trucks
The main focus was City Hall, and the Ferry building. We would prebuild a lighting rig on a flat bed truck and drive it into place each night. Rather than making this a case study of how I did this for each building I'll just show some cool pictures, and those of you that are lighting nerds, can post questions.

I used a variety of equipment Source 4 pars, Varilites, Mac 2k washes, and Xenotech 7k's.








The trucks where all prebuilt in the impact shop, and driven to the two locations each night. Can you imagine a parade of 8 trucks packed with movers heading down the freeway? I watched them cross the Bay Bridge and I couldn't help but laugh.

First up is Coit Tower which was not done with trucks, but with pars mounted on the roof of the lower museum. It was the only place that we didn't have to take the lights down each night.




Next is City Hall



I seem to have exceeded my photo limit.
I'll put some more pictures up at later.