My assistant was my workmate at the AirCrafters, Jacek Kesy. We rode my recently bought 22 year-old Honda for a distance of over 1100 Km from Watsonville, California, to Casa Grande, Arizona. The Nissan event was a perfect way to end the Dempsey/MacCready HPV Hour Prize competition, so they awarded prize-money for the fastest riders and for the rider, who would travel 90 km in one hour (25.000 USD). It was my intention to win the event being held there.

I was disappointed with the track condition on Thursday, and the fact that no one from IHPVA or HPVA was allowed to see it before we had all gathered there. Under these conditions, I bet nobody is going to go more than 75 km in one hour at the track.

Cracks in the pavement on both 2-km long turns of the oval didn’t look good. But I was wrong about the potential for good speeds. Rob English made a good run. He said it was bumpy, but OK. He had more problems with overheating.

The next day, I decided to try to do something. I planned to travel more than 84.22 km. This distance would beat Sam Whittingham’s actual 1-h world record. At the middle of the turn on the north, at a speed of 87 km/h, a bump bounced me in the air, followed by another several bumps. I fell in resonance and barely kept control of the vehicle, stopped pedaling for a while. It happened in the exact same place again on the second lap. That’s why I decided to go at a slower pace there every time, fighting for survival. I just wanted to break the world record, although I felt the bike could go much faster. It was a big frustration in my mind. I could do better on smoother straight sections of the oval. But being afraid to become addicted to speed, I pushed my motivation and adrenaline down.

Somewhere in the 49th minute it happened. My bike’s front tire went FLAT. I braked to slow down to about 60 km/h before the vehicle tipped over and slid to a stop on the side of the track. Needless to say, this was a big disappointment; I was neither tired, nor overheated at the time. But it was a lesson for the next time. I should have some more reliable tires with me the next time; tires that can better handle the unexpectedly bumpy track surface.

The next day I didn’t believe I could repeat the run on a very thin tubular tire that was even more delicate than that one that got a puncture. So, that was unfortunately my end of the Dempsey-MacCready Nissan event.

On Sunday, I could only watch how smoothly “Fast Freddy” set a New World Record of 85.97 km in one hour. I wished that Matt Weaver could prove the worthiness his advanced camera-bike, but he wasn’t lucky again.

It’s time to improve my bike’s stability and control, I guessed, as the roads were not likely to be repaired. I hoped I would get another chance on that track. It seemed to be fast over-all. Anyway, I was lucky, because they awarded me $4.000 as special prize for fastest foreign competitor over seven laps. Thank you!