Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126926
The S&S/Bub streamliner Tenacious gets pulled away on one of its Speed Week runs. The Harley-Davidsonpowered 'liner went 274 mph in a qualifying run, bl,!t rain halted attempts at a record. The fat~r and son team of Cliff and Charlie Clupper took the Suzukipowered Winged Wonder (they removed the wing for this run) to a record. BOlJIIeville Speed Week 'Tenacious nears 300 mph By Dorde Woodruff WENDOVER, UT, AUG. 18-21 Sixteen new records were set at the annual Bonneville Speed Week, in spite of the "week" being reduced to only three and a half days by the desert's unpredictable weather. Showers on the third day, Tuesday, were light but on Wednesday afterI . ~oon a m~re ge~era ram contmued unul dramage from the entire local basin Oooded part of the course. Prior to this, the course was generally good, although the first two miles were rough. This pan was especially difficult for the bikes, not so much as for most of the cars. ,:ast mot~rcycle time, 274 mph, was sellnaquahfymgrunby.theS&S/Bub/ H-D streamlmer TenacIOUs on !)-fon· day, while accelerating hard which. means mile exit speed was closer to 290. Third gear broke, but that was due to an experiment in putting third closer to fourth which left third weaker. Also, on teardown one of the pair of third gears appeared to be too tightly fitted on the shaft. This was coupled with harder than usual acceleration on the latter half of the course because of the first pan being rough, something'liners are especially sensitive to. The beefed-up Sponster transmission though marginal was used to keep the vehicle narrow and thus more aerodynamic; 'liners often work around com· promise parts. With this meet Tenacious seemed to be past the pOint in its development where problems kept it from reaching full engine speed. Sunday's run of 193 was a "slow" one only because required for the long course license (for vehicles running over 175). Streamliners are the royalty of motorcycles on the Salt, dramatic attentiongellers which are now, with higher speeds and more afety gear, expensive, complicated, and therefore rare. But kings are sometimes clowns. On an allempted second run on Sunday after eight at night under ideal conditions of no wind and a cool temperature, unbeknown t to the crew pre sure to the skids was lost. When pilot Dan Kinsey allempted to follow the tow truck angling across the course to better footing he had to lean on a skid and fell over right in front of the starting line crowd. How emb:'lrras ing. Also unbeknownst to the crew, in spite of qualifying easily on Monday, their troubles were not over. Salt flal:S racing has problems: extreme and irregular weather, and consequent course conditions; high altitude which makes jetting difficult; some remoteness from sophisticated supplies or parts; mysterious effects of the corrosive substances of which the course is formed. Tenacious' crew encountered a new problem in Salt flats annals this time: Bub Enterprises' Deni Manning (and a few hundred other people including other racers) got gassed in their beds at the. Stateline Casino, as,. monoxide leaked into the air conditioning system in the middle of the night. The bike was on the line on time for the Tuesday morning record run, but the truck was a little late; some officials said yes and some said no; they did not run. One official commented that they could easily qualify again (and.set their record) which was true and was not. Rain not then being predicted, they decided to use Tuesday to check things out rather than requalify, find· ing the brakes needed a lillie allention, and a problem with the fuel nozzles. This did, indeed, easily requalify on Wednesday, before the storm, but Thursday morning's record runs never happened. According to Manning, who ought to know because it's his 1970 record of 265 with Cal Rayborn riding that they're after, this is the hardest luck record in Bonneville history. He counts 31 runs down the salt in excess of 265 since 1970 - but there has been no subsequent two-way record in the class. This includes all the effon devoted to the ill-fated Honda Hawk streamliner. George Smith of S&S Products estimates that Tenacious' highly modified Harley engine is developing 250 to 275 hp now that the nitrous is working. They use a nearly unique system of tuning, running a rich mixture of 93% nitro, then adding nitrous in fourth gear which leans the mixture out, and more alcohol to keep from being too lean and help cool the engine, "the closest thing to supercharging you can get with a normally aspirated engine." The ultimate goal, of course, is Don Vesco's 1978 motorcycle LSR of 318 and some change. The group is now ready for a long course on private time, the usual way such things are done, whenever the salt is good enough. The fastest run by a non-streamliner bike was Bonnevi lIe regular Dave Matson's 217 mph with a much rewQrked '55 Vincent, continuing his remark· able performances. Matson, too, relies on nitro to accomplish his fast times. This year he got his record of 205 on Tuesday and went home without destroying an engine, for a change. The record was set despite some mysterious problem that turned the bike off during the return record run, to coast through the lights at 202. fastest normally-aspirated bike on gas was ScollGuthrie's '78Tl Yamaha rigged out as a 650 and a 500, over 177 in the MPS-AF-5OOcc class. Guthrie delights in setting multiple records each year, and in running faster each meet with less displacement. Originally he obtained many parts from Don Vesco; this year he was pleased that for the first time all the engine work was his, the re ult of 12 years experience on the Salt. In fact the bike was so fast he ran out of gearing, not the usual thing for the meticulously prepared Guthrie. He was planning to set 12 records but with only three days of record runs managed five. He missed out on one because the results were wrong; riders are ultimately responsible themselves for knowing if they've qualified, but running two clas es a day even with the able help of mechanic Jon Nalon kept Guthrie rather busy. With all the hot new bikes available, the most action was in the 650,750 and l300cc Production classes. In spite of the fast times quoted in the motorcycle press for these bikes, this is not as easy as it may seem. Bonneville rules allow any kind of engine mods (within the class displacement) though the bike must look stock, and full advantage is often taken of this opportunity. How· ever, none of the aftermarket carbs or pipes with which owners soon trick out their pets are allowed. The pipes may be gulled or otherwise changed internally. A Kawasaki 1000 inja did win the P-lOOOcc class and set the fastest production record, 166.629. But the owner and rider, Doug Meyer, is a Kawasaki dealer and Bonneville veteran who did extensive modifications to the pistons, cylinder head, timing, the interiors of the air box, carbs, and exhausts. Not your average street bike and not your average street rider. The other Production record·setters were all Bonneville veterans of from one-year to a decade or so's experience. Larry Forstall will occasionally come all the way £rom Pennsylvania for USFRA weekend meets; this year he brought a new Suzuki GSXRIIOO to barely wrest the P-I300cc win from newcomer Cal Swanson, in a race so tight that the officials double checked the times by CB before tell ing the rid·