Bonneville 2007 Report: Volume II
Thunder Bob heads up the Bikernet TV crew stationed in Bonneville to cover the 2007 BUB International Motorcycle Speed Trials. The team shot action photography, video of record runs and video interviews of the racers. Bob captured the thrill and the frustration of the Bonneville experience. Selected interviews are coming soon and will run at Metric Thunder with the entire program running at Bikernet TV.
Record Running Streamliners Are a No Show
At the BUB show the Streamliners are at the top of the food chain. The Ack Attack ran for a world record but crashed and was done for the meet. It sat in a special-built halo trailer taped up and not going anywhere. BUB decided not to run the #7 streamliners because of the weather and no one was challenging him for the record. There were a few other streamliners running in lower classes but nothing on the salt challenging for the ultimate record.
The Ack Attack sits busted and alone on the Bonneville Salt Flats
Two Teams – Two Different Results
Bikernet TV kept close tabs on Bikernet’s 5 Ball Racing Team and their entry “Assault Weapon” as well as D&D Performance Enterprises’ V-Bike entry. One took home a record and one went home with broken dreams of triumph.
Valerie Thompson, 5 Ball Racing’s pilot, returns to the pits.
5 Ball Racing’s Assault Weapon
Valerie Thompson, 5 Ball Racing’s pilot, had two runs in four days before the Thursday mid-morning run. In those two runs she had to get the feel of the bike, get comfortable with the racing surface and get acquainted with Mr. Nitrous.
Val made her first pass on Thursday at 151 mph and 161 mph on the backup, using the nitrous. Team 5 Ball Racing now owns a world record and has the world’s fastest Panhead Harley-Davidson racer.
Not only did the Assault Weapon take a record, it won the Best Engineered Motorcycle Award for the Bonneville meet.
That’s Dave Rash, the boss of D&D pointing at the Weapan exhaust D&D designed.
An Exhausting Story
Dave Rash, President of D&D, designed the exhaust system for the Assault Weapon. The system starts from the head at 1 7/8-inch pipe for 14 inches and steps up to 2-inch unit until each pipe is exactly 35 inches long. The pipes go into a collector and attach to a slip-on megaphone pipe.
This system has been tested to give me maximum hp at 6,500 to 6,800 rpms. We’ve discovered that the 2 into 1 performance pipes generate 20 more horses than single exhausts.
-Dave Rash, The Pope of Pipe
Tough Days at the Office
Team D&D Performance Enterprises came to the BUB International Motorcycle Speed Trials in September of 2007 with great hopes of taking a National AMA and World FIM record on their V-Bike racer. The team tried valiantly to produce records but was not able to overcome the unpredictable wet weather conditions or operational challenges of the meet. In the fist three days they made only 2 passes.
D&D’s Custom Chrome V-Bike entry had gone through significant testing before heading out to Bonneville. Successful runs at the Texas Mile in Goliad, TX over 150 mph suggested that the racer was on pace for a record.
Team D&D slightly modified the Custom Chrome powerplant and upped the performance to 185 HP. It runs alcohol with a splash of nitro methane. The Team needed to make a number of practice runs in order to fine tune their setup. The goal was to break the 158 mile barrier and take the record from the Drag Specialties’ Fat Book Flyer.
Rain, wind and organizational delays had the boys waiting in line for hours. Bob Dowdy, VP of Operations, had this to say, “I waited in the hot sun for over 42 hours to run. It was frustrating but that is racing in Bonneville. Sometimes you eat Bear and sometimes the Bear eats you; we came back with some of our backside missing.”
Thursday was the last day and the meet closed at noon. The team was up early and in line. They got a run in early and found that the high elevation was preventing them from getting all the power down as the bike was turning only at 5,000 rpm. They got back in line and thrashed to modify the gearing in order to run the motorbike at the optimum 6,800 rpm. Time ran out before they could stage and make their record run.
They were able to run on the non-qualifying Run Whatcha Brung Course that was rough and less groomed. The V-Bike is a hard tail and requires a smooth surface in order to extract all the performance from the motorcycle. They got down the track at 153 mph and sideways before rider Johnny Minonno shut it off.
We had the motorbike, rider and setup to put the smackdown on the Flat Book Flyer and take the record home to Texas for Custom Chrome. We just ran out of time but we will be back next year.
- Dave Rash
Last run of the day.
Pictures provided by George Emmons Najar of www.horsepowermarketing.com and www.bikernet.com.
