BONNEVILLE: The Run for the Record (300 MPH?
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BONNEVILLE PREVIEW
By Art Friedman
Late summer and the Bonneville
freak's heart turns to thoughts of
records. Over
100 machines are
expected to turn up for this year's
assault on the record book. The 300
miles per hour figure has been
mentioned several times.
There are four attempts that have
applied for the FIM in tern ation aI
sanction under four different· brand
names: Honda, Kawasaki, Norton, and
Yamaha. The Honda effort is the Honda
Hawk which is said to have had over
$150,000 poured into it. At this time it
has the fastest one-way run yet
recorded.
However, Harley presently owns the
motorcycle Land Speed Record. They
aren't making a shot at the record
during speed week this year. Perhaps if
their re.cord js hroken they will come
out to the salt later.
Kawasaki's shot at the LSR will come
from Bill Wirges of Princeton, Illinois.
ills machine is a very sophisticated
streamliner powered by two Kawaski
750's. Wirges is well known for his
ability to do powerful things to
Kawasakis, and he has a year of
experience on the salt.
Another major effort comes from a
Norton based liner. It's builders plopped
down their one-quarter share of the
$4000 FIM sanctioning fee so you can
be sure that they are serious.
The Yamaha streamliner comes from
the garages of Don Vesco. Vesco's name
has come to be identified with the 350
Yamaha engines that he has already held
the LSR with briel1y and which still
hold the S-AG-700 record. His genius
for tuning these machines has extended
past Bonneville to road racing so it
seems strange that he should switch to
750cc four-stroke twins of the same
make. onetheless, that is what Vesco
has done. For a while he toyed with the
idea of Yamaha snowmobile engines
because the rules state that record'attempts may be made with any engine
manufactured
by
a
motorcycle
company. The AMA stood on one foot
and then on the other for a while and
couldn't make up their minds abou t the
snowmobile engines so Vesco wen t to
the 750 engines. At the time of this
writing the streamliner is still under
construction. It may be that the new
engines will give Vesco some rust-year
bothers, but he knows enough about
chassis design that he should be able to
do it if it runs right.
There
will
be streamliners in
displacement classes other than open.
The advantage of this approach is that a
record can be obtained in a class other
than open and concejvably be the LSR
as well. One entry, a Triumph, is using a
twin engined liner that employs two
.650 engines sleeved down to 600 cc
each. That put him in 1200 cc class.
There are 339 records to be shot at
and equipment of a1j kinds to try it.
LEFT: Don Sliger will be at Bonneville to up his own AA3000 record so that he can join the elite
200 mph club. His record presently stands at 194.724 with his dual Royal Enfield rig.
ABOVE: The Braverman family is going to Bonneville in style. Bob Braverman, the publisher of
"Cycle Guide" is running three Kawasakis: A single engined stock framed 500 for the CA 500
record which it currently holds at 126.94 mph, a special fra'med machine using two SODs, and a.
sidecar emplying a 750cc engine. The sidecar class is just getting organized and so this year it will
run as an "experime':'!tal vehicle". Braverman's son will also be there mounted on a Carabela 125.
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