Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

(one -half liter and under). On Monda y Burkdoll bumped hi s 195.858 record from Speed Week to an average of 202.424. T he colla boration of the Utah builder and th e Florida tun er a lrea dy go t bo th Burkd oll and G ut hr ie into th e Two Club, in the J class. Now Guthrie wh o keeps going faster with his TZs is gett ing clo se o n a bik e. O n Su nday J u lie Burkdoll drove the ca r but had , so man y things to think of she didn't noti ce how fast she was goi ng, a nd was tim ed at 182. New drivers are supposed to start with speeds below 149 mph and move up by 25 mph increments . So she decided she'd better coo l it until next year. Two of Don Vesco's crew also go t in a few ru ns on th eir ow n mo torcycles. At Speed Week roa d racer Eric Ri tter was left with a 145.449 qualify ing tim e wh en th e m eet was canceled for rain. H e changed th e mounting of th e fairin g on his Rotax-engined 250 so th at he didn 't have to tuc k so extremely , and added solid disc wh eel covers. The new arra ngeme nt must have been better aerodynam icall y because it th en p ulled well in sixth. Ritt er go t th e first record of the World of Speed meet with a down run Saturday of 152.977 and return run Su nday morning of 143.252 for an average of 148.104, over Shari Vick er y's 1978 TZ250 record o f 144.387. Shari was abo ut th e second . wom an to co mpe te o n a bik e at Bonnevill e; no t many do, to this day. She and husband Bill have a Yam aha deal ership in Col orado and were act ive at Bonnevill e in th e '70s. R itt er put the bik e toge ther as a good economy package, using Rotax because it has m idr ange speed and is bulletproof. H e p u t the engine in a used Twin Spar aluminum road race frame from Dave Busby, and installed Don Vesco Racing cyli nd ers, Ceramic piston s, Twin Crank ro lle r cran k, Lectron fuel system, an d Marvic wheels. Ritter wasn 't sure which mi le he was in so was still acce lerati ng Sunday wh en he fell down , getting h is hand s scra tc hed b eca u se of forge tting to ta pe h is ga u ntlets . Wh en Dave Mat son fell at over 200 mph a t Speed Week h is gloves came off and hi s hands got salt burns. Riders since th en have genera lly been mo re careful to tape their gloves on. With such hi gh horsep ower cars and th e alumi n um wh eels on cars, wh ich dig in, th e co ur se is getti ng increasingly ro ug h , rutted, and unsafe for riders in mixed events, especia lly in tho se wi th a large numb er of entran ts. Lee Martini di dn 't have mu ch tim e to run hi s FZRIOOO ei the r, Cal Ra yborn Ill's formerroad racer. For thi s meet he added a nitrous bottle. On Sunday the bik e only went 132. So he cleaned the float bowls and made a more typ ical 176.574 run on Monday, exiting the timed mil e still acceleratin g. But after th e return .reco rd run he declined teardown , perhaps in view of th e black cloud ra pidly ap proach ing, feel in g th e average of 175.385 was not enough h igh er th an hi s last year's 173.724 reco rd in M-AG-1000 to ma tter. Because of the problem wi th th e clocks a nd th e stor m, partici pants did n ot' h av e as m an y run s as expected. La st year five motorcycle records were set, this year o n ly Ritter's. Bob Wall ace made severa l runs on th e 165 minimum in the AABG- 750 class with his $150 (plus a lot of time a nd some parts) salvaged Kawa saki turbo, but the best he did was 152.310. Not bad for a $150 bike, though . The bike was tuned perfectly for . Denv er wh ere Wallace lives, he said, but he couldn 't seem to get the right combina tio n for Bonnevill e 'several hundred feet lower. An int eresting bik e with a lo t of handsome parts. Wall ace rebu ilt th e fram e to take off four inches in height for this year a nd add fro nt su spension, found he had too litt le trail , wobbled, turned ou t, reversed th e for ks and ended up witha very sta ble bike with over five in ches of trail. Tom Murphy rod e and Earl e Bates of Meacham, Or egon, tuned an '87 CBRIOOO Hurricane in th e P-lOOO class wh ere th e record of 170.007 is held by Dou g Meye r 's ' 88 ZX. Murphy and Bat es cou ldn 't seem to , get out of th e 150s. But Meacham is close to Bend , Oregon, the home of Powroll's Pete Fisher, th e man behind more than on e successful Bonneville ; cam pai gn, and Fisher promised to shar e Bonnevill e tips and mayb e even a dyno. Meyer is an experienced Bonnevill e hand al so, how ever, wh o rod e in the '70s and th en returned to th e salt in recent years, and will be hard to beat. Lance von Sieh of Phoen ix , Arizo n a, 'a n d Dan Il i c of Chicago , Illinois, are also after a difficult record, the 192.490 in the A-AB-2000 cl a ss o f Ca l Swa n so n's mu chreworked '85 GS 1150, with another modified Suzuki. They got up to the 170s at th is meet, versus th e 180s at Speed Week. Jeff Wil ey ra n a H arl ey Sportster in th e MPS -AF-1300 class with 161.160 his top speed against a 1973 H arl ey record of 185.883. And "Iron Butt" George Egl off who lik es all kinds of motorcycle experiences had been wanting to take an official ride on the salt, so he did, o n hi s Suzuki Rotary street bike. The Utah' Salt Flats Racing Associat io n is composed almost exclusively of car racers, so motorcycles have been incidental at 'this meet. Thanks to th e services of Peter Perez from Colorado, the motorcycle con- . tingent had expert tech support this year. Motorcycle streamliners ar e no problem for the car gu ys, since th eir requirements are mostl y for safety and are the same as the cars. T h is meet was by far th e largest hosted by this sma ll club, with 99 pai d entries of which 87 showed up. .$-< V The next la rg est was last year's second World of Speed Meet with 57. ..0 Previous meets never included more th an 40 participants and often fewer. u Possibly th e World of Speed meet will be limited to 75 in th e future. The club wants ent rants to be abl e to make pl enty of runs. With th e avail able hours of daylight in th e fall, this year it was tough, and you always have to all ow for the possibility of bad weather at Bonnevill e. After the storm, a short-co urse start was established two miles up th e co urse, and vehicles ran from It and the main starting line alternately. Up to now, because th e club really didn't expect to fill up th e meet , th ey hav en 't ad he re d str ic tly to th eir criterion of long-course vehicles for th e World of Speed, though they ar e in the majority. Salt Flats racing has its ups and downs, attendance-wise, but as th e meet becomes established as a prem ier event, possibl y even nex t year , the long-course defi nition will hold. Actually, it wasn 't the bikes th at held things up th is year , it was . some of th e slower cars which had a hard tim e getti ng up to spee d. • .9 o ()()'282 "BuJl for!iJeed" poster t The 1990 HiPoint calendars and posters provide maximum coverage and excitement for your walls. Four incredible calendars ( unfolds to 12" x 24" ) and four outrageous posters (24 " x 30") are excellent gifts for the motocross, streetbike, watercraft and beautiful women enthusiast. Start the 90's in style! See your local HiPoint dealer or send check or money order to HiPoint Racing, 11249 Sunco Drive, Ranch o Cordova, CA 9574 2. Call 1(800) 824,3872 for VISa or MasterCard orders. Calendars: S8.95 each plus 13.00 shipping/handling Posters: S3.95 each ~lus S1.00 shipping/handling (KJ-2(il "O ff-Roud Action " adendar 25

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