Patrick Gleason's News (8)

On our last full day in Doha, as planned, we went down to the pits and did the final prep on the boat for shipment. Hatches were given a final dry-out where needed, covers put in place, hatch screw plates and internal hardware was sprayed down with rust inhibitor, and we placed the big plastic cover on the trip to keep it clean on journey home. Last word is that the boats won’t head out…

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After going down to the pits this morning to finish packing up the truck and grabbing some pieces off the Gearbox to send home, we high-tailed it back to the Mariott, changed into some clean clothes, and went off on the “Safari”. Safari can mean a couple different things, but this particular connotation involved a 4-wheeling caravan out into the Qatar desert and sand dunes, about a 45 minute ride from Doha.



We had a caravan of about 8 vehicles, mostly Toyota Landcruisers, Nissan…

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Today was the conclusion of The UIM H1 Oryx Cup. The two big winners as you all probably know by now were Dave Villwock, who not only won the Oryx Cup but picked up his 62nd career win, tying him with Bill Muncey for the sport’s winningest driver…..and Steven David who brought home his third consecutive Team High Point Championship for The Oberto/Madison gang. These are both HUGE accomplishments by any measure, and my hat is off to both drivers and teams for having such great… Continue

Hi friends,

Your obedient correspondent is a little woofed tonight, so I don’t have a ton of piffle for you. The U-17 struggling with some overheating and fuel issues, so it was another late night in the pits while we pulled the motor, pulled the PT wheel out, changed a fuel control and got…

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Day one of the Oryx Cup Experience is in the books. We started off with the breakfast at the hotel, which wasn’t too bad, although “Veal Bacon” is NOT Bacon. Make no mistake about that. There was a lot of setup to do on the boat today, so much of the morning was spent heads down, getting electrical systems back in the boat (we removed the boards after San Diego), getting the skid fin bolted on, mounting props, and doing all of that “first day at the race site” stuff.



Getting the…

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Made it to Houston, and am waiting to get on the flight to Doha. We board in about an hour. Word is there's free internet in the pit area, so GAME ON as far as blogging, time permitting. There's not much down time when you go racing with Nate.

Hopefully there will be a few less caterwauling infants on the international segment of this journey. I swear that there is an IBWC (International Babies with Colic) Convention going on Houston. They were all on the flight…

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A couple of years ago, Disney ran a commercial on TV. Like most of them, it featured some impossibly cute little window-licker kid tossing and turning in his bed. His watchful mother peeked into his room and said,"Johnny, aren't you asleep yet?", to which the the kid croaked back, "I'm too excited to sleep!"...because mom and dad were taking the family to the Magic Kingdom. Remember that one?



About the same time that a was popular, I was getting ready for my first season-long… Continue

Yep...that seems to be the universal reaction when I tell people that in just over a week from today I will be going to Doha with the U-17 crew to compete in the Oryx Cup. The first response is "will you be safe there?" (am I safe ANYWHERE???), followed by "where is that place?" (turn left at the opening of the Persian Gulf) and then always the big one, "Who's paying for it?" (a very rich Sheik who really, really, really likes boat racing!).



Thanks to the HARM's terrific new web…

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