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/127208
recorded a speed of 198.167 mph on his turbocharged . 9 8 5 BMW K1 00. 1 Bonneville Speed Week Guthrie, Capri fly at Salt Flats . By Dorde Woodruff WE NDOVE R , UT, AUG . 20-23 " It was just like racing, only less of it." Scott Guthrie's comment described Speed Week 1989. Bikes and cars alike suffered from long liries, winds, and an unseasonably early a u tu m nal storm which sh u t down the co urse a nd brought th e meet to a cIose Wed nesd ay n ight. Riders, always a minor- 18 ity a t Bonnevill e, also endured less tha n sports ma n-like treatment fro m th e d river- do minated Southern Ca lifornia T im ing Association. Onl y six mo torcycle reco rds were set d uri ng the meet. Aug ust a t the Sa lt Flats is always cha ncy fo r rain storm s, whe n tro p ical moistu re coll ides wi th jet stream stor ms. Sa tu rday, the da y of registra tio n a nd in sp ection for Speed Week , had suc h a storm , bu t af ter a dry year the sa lt is able to absorb rai n pretty well , especially a lim ited a mo unt. Riders repo rted some sli pper in ess und erfoot o n S u n day , whi ch is always a shakedo wn day any way. Registration was hi gh , so ยท Im es were 1on~. Th e course was sh ut . h to d own in te a tern oon du e to wi d . ue . win . , . . T he meet s o fficials decld~d that ~otorcycles shou ld ha ve thel ~ ow n Im~ th is year. On Sunday t~IS was alrig h t becau ~e th e three car lin es .ra n alterna tely ~lth one mo to.rcycle line, th e approxima te pro po rti on of cars to bik es. Also th e quaner-m ile tra p was someho w measured 100 feet too long, so measu red speeds were on ly 9~% ? f real .sp eeds; a t least o ne rider didn t q ual ify wh o sho uld have. All in a ll, on ly o ne rider qual ified o n Sunday, T rey j orski, of Kawasak i Superbikes . In c., a deal ersh ip in Oklah om a City, Oklahom a. j or ski rode a KRI , th e Eu ropea n two -cycle twin Kawasaki pa tterned after the 250cc GP race bike, with a 125.328 on th e 122.570 m ph recor d set ju st last year in th e P-250 class by Fran ces Stark on a Ca nadian model Suzuki 250 twin , ~Iso a two-cycle. . Fran ces fat her DeWay ne IS a Bo nnevill e reg ul a r and the KRI bashed the hopes or another fa th erda ughter team , Wiltz a nd Bel en Wagn er of Indianapo lis, Indian a, for who m a not her Bonnevill e racer, Doug Meyer of Dubl in Kawasaki in Dublin , Cal i fo rn ia, prepared a dom estic Ninja 250. Th ~ Kawasaki Su perbikes. team of j ors.b , the manager , C~HtlS R06S, service man ager, a nd Michae l G:assaway, ow ner, had no tro uble do in g what they wanted to with the KRI , though n~wc?me~s to the sa lt. Ross set u p ~hls bike !Ik~ the A!Vs a nd MXs he s bee? burldmg.for five years, a nd also a KX8~ . run m t~e A-AF100 cl ass.ln addltlon t? engme ~ork Ross softened the KR s ~uspens lOn, (lower~ddH,.adde d a st~en ngh?almP l ther require m c asses m w ICI e . t' d. 125 h) d exis m g reco r ISo ver mp , a n b i c h a nge d th ears t0 tu ck III better. Monday morning the KRI too k its record easily with a 129.874 average. T he Kaw asak i Superbikes entries we re spo nso re d b y Cu rt is R o ss engi nes as well as the deal ersh ip , in additio n th e KR by K&N a nd th e KX by Tsuba ki. . On Monda y, fo r some reaso n officia ls decided not to run the same proportion of bikes to cars . Six or eig h t cars ran to each mot orcycle sent off the lin e. Mo torcycles were also not allo wed in the Long Course (for veh icles over 175 mph ) lan e. How ever, thi s was th e o nly da y th e co urse was not sh ut down for win d in the afternoon , a nd was by far the most success fu l day of the meet. Six bikes qualified and more th an three times th at man y ca rs. Kaw asak i Su perbi kes changed th e car bs on th e KR to 35m m PWK Keihins, took the fairin g off , and qu alified in the M-AG- 250 class at 127.012 on a 125.727 record set in 1980 by Casey Graybill on a Yamaha T Z250. They cont in ued to str uggle with th e KX80 which they didn't have a n easy tim e with, unlike th e KR. Gu thrie wh ose a nn ua l goal is to set a t least a record a day, qualified three times Monday with his hi ghl y variable T Z setu ps. He turned a n impressive 187.813 on a n o ld (1969) record of 169.331 in th e APS-AF-750 class, set by J. Gough o n a T riumph. Th is was th e fastest he had ever go ne with tha t dis p laceme nt (ac tually o nly 700cc), th ough he was geared too low. On Monday also, with th e quart er remeasured, th e tach on th e 350 mat ch ed th e timing slip, for a 149.951 aga ins t 148.604 set in th e MP S-AF-350 class in 1976 by Brian Eric ksen o n a Yamah a back when Guth rie was sti ll ca mpa ign ing a Spo rts ter. And Guthrie al so qual ifie d a t 196.548 in the Burkdoll fam ily's beautiful strea m line r car powered by hi s ada pa table TZs, on a 1986 record of 175.977 in th e KI .GS (30.5 cid a nd under gas strea mlin er) class . Matt Ca pri of Luftmeister on hi s tu rb och a rg ed 1985 KI00 r id e-towork bik e achieved a n im pressive yet frus trating 199.349, so close to th e magic 200 mph salt racers stri ve for. Wh en co nditions are right, tha t is, no t too much headwind or wh eelsp in, Capri now definitely has the capaci ty to go over 200. New for this year were a bett er fuel system; bett er head s; th e co m b us tion cha mbe r resha ped; tak in g o ut th e sq uis h band where detonati on sta rted; bi gg er valve spri ngs good to 11 ,000 rpm; and hi gh er lift cams. All these are L uf tme ister ca talog item s. T he Luftmeister team had two problem s this week. One was th at the stock fai ring is ill egal in all but Prod uction classes a t Bonneville, since it ex tends in front of th e front axle. T his rule was mad e in the pas t when bikes didn 't handle as well as they do now, and large fairings made . th em fall o ver in winds. Capri pointed out later a t th e motorcycle meeting that he was unabl e to design a Bonneville-legal fairing as stable as th e Bonneville-illegal stock er. But the contestants voted down a rule cha nge as unfair to pr evious participants. T hen during th e week Capri found wind-tunnel access wh ich cou ld help Ch a rli e Pereth ian , th e well- respec ted owne r of Parabellum, refine th e fai ring for more stabi lity. Actua lly, in the past on ly purposebuilt Bonnevill e-framed long wh eelbase bikes have go ne th at fast. Also th e L uftmeis ter team had a problem with fuel delivery in that th e fuel pump resp onded erra tica lly to contro l. The alternate bik e suffered a da maged piston becau se of ru nn ing too lean. After clea n ing th e sa lt fro m the fue l pum p they trie d moun tin g it o n foam. Vib ration p ro ved to be the so urce o f the problem; fuel del ivery wor ked fine after th at . . T he two purpose-built Bonnevill e racing sidecars had mi xed results. Bob Bakker bent a n axle comi ng off th e line a nd cha tteri ng. " I like to think it was excess power ," sa id Bakk er. H e used a new meth od to obtain th e part which ha s ended Bonneville's desert isolation, faxing a d raw in g to Barnett Too l a nd En gi neering a nd th e part was th en flown up. H owever, on the next run Bakker found the new front end to be un stabl e, probably because of too mu ch p o siti ve tr ail. Desi gnin g sideca r out fits is tricky, a nd th ese two built just for Bonneville are the only two of th eir kind, with design details still being pioneered. La rry Coleman did better with hi s Kal-Gard/Barnett Spe cial , though it was running lean and geared too low , qualifyin g a t 157.729 on . his own record of 143.381 of last year. Col eman has a spacey-loo king new strea m lined fairing designed by Mike Corbin in th e works for next year, sim ilar to those used by sideca r road race rs. These Bonneville o utfits are wid er th an road race ones, to fit Bonnevill e rules set up for street o u tfits. Co lema n was fret ting over tires las t year, decided patterned worked better than slick, put bi gger wheels on th e fron t a nd sideca r, so progress is being m ade. The bike w a s "s traigh t as an arrow." One of the fast Bonnevill e racers' biggest p roblem s is getting th e power to th e grou nd. Bakker's rig is powered by a turboch a rged KZ engine of 1105cc di spl acem ent, Colem an' s by a n '86 Suzuki csxauoo. .. Wo rri ed by a sidecar passen ger of last yea r, a grand mothe r in her 70s, th ough nothing adverse happen ed, th e scrA decid ed to bar passengers from sidecars, allowing in stead a properly secu red weight. The passenger normally do esn 't have th e bal ancing functi on on a strai ghtaway so necessary on a course with curves , but sidecars are unhappy a bo u t this new rule because sidecars traditionall y have pa ssengers. Also th ey were proud of the fact th at these vehicles were the on ly race veh icles a t Bonnevill e allowed to carry passengers. In real li fe many older women not on ly rid e in sid ecars but pilot th em ; the FIM , which oversees q uite -a n acti ve segmen t of sidecar com pe ti tion , allows th e choice of eith er passenger or weigh t. Larry Forstall 's Suzuki GSXRIIOO q ualified a t 177.231 on a record of 176.615 in th e MPS -AG -1300 class set by roa d race r Vance Breese's H arley in 1980. For stall 's 1986 bike, campai gn ed by him since th en th ough he himself is a sa lt rat of much longer durat ion, is enhanced to I255cc, with