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Let's start with first practice. The quads/motorcycles/sidecars, show up at the toll booth entrance at 4:00am. Practice and what might be your first time to see the course, is done on the top half. Gate opens and you travel caravan style past the Pancake House to the pit area. Unload in the dark, calm your nerves in the dark and prepare in the dark. Line up or gridding begins in the dark as the first practice run will begin at first light. Take it easy is on everyone's mind, but not on their throttle hand. Make your first look a good safe look. There are no guardrails and trees do not line the course at this altitude. Sun cracks the dawn and one by one, you are flagged off to check your jetting, suspension, nerves and gears. Is the motor going to live in this air? Will the sun blind you going into a corner? Will you find that patch of ice and rattle your cage a little?

Safely to the summit and you high five your new friends and wait for the signal to come back and do it again. The highway opens soon to the public and you have to be finished and loaded before the traffic reaches this location. Four to five runs later, you're done. It's about 8:30am and it's time to load up and head back to town. Some will get rest, others can be seen in hotel parking lots tuning and making adjustments throughout the day. The afternoon is a good time to drive the course in your crew vehicle and memorize every rock, every corner, the fast straights and sweeping turns. Sure seems slow. Traffic is heavy and it's not race pace.