The weather at COTA turned really nasty on Saturday morning… we had 50+ mph winds and lots of rain and lightning. The thunderstorm dissipated, but the winds remained all day long. Many of the tent campers lost their tents due to wind damage, so they packed up and left the event early. There were also some injuries due to flying debris and collapsed event canopies inside the race track.
This was the same storm system that generated deadly tornadoes across the south-central US and continuing through the eastern US: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornado_outbreak_of_April_13%E2%80%9315,_2019
My tent fared OK, but I did get a few torn tie-outs on my rain fly, several tent stakes were bent beyond repair, and guy lines were shredded or lost. My tent poles were bending and inverting most of the day due to the heavy wind loads (35-50 mph all day long). I finally fell asleep with the tent collapsed down on my feet and legs… I was too tired to care anymore. The wind finally subsided after 10pm, and the next day was much nicer.
My home-brew parking stand for the Super Cub worked really well! The Cub was pointed into the wind to minimize the surface profile to the wind… it worked out well in my case. There were lots of other bikes that fell over due to the winds or because of the soft, muddy ground.
Many of the car campers and moto-campers lost their tents in the storm or to the winds that continued afterwards. There were dozens (if not hundreds) of tents and tarps that were shredded by the storm, and many people just decided to quit and go home on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, they probably missed out on the great weather on Sunday and all of the excellent race action.
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QM
quasimotard@gmail.com
#COTA #optoutside #MotoGP
