T.e •
ISTENSO
'"
l
....
'"
en
c.>
QUICKEST THING ON ONE WHEEL
by Keith Arn old
In 1962 T.C. Christenson got beaten
badly at the drags by a 650 Norton. His
mount at this time was a 650 BSA. The
very ne xt day he went into John
Gregory's Norton shop and purchased
an . Atlas. 0 ohn lo oms large in the
Christenson legend. ] That same bike
that originally beat him soon became his
property , too. Of course this came after
the rematch between that rider and
T.C., and, of co u rse, T .C. just had to
win . So started the long standing
association with the Norton brand.
The other bike was transformed into
an all-out dragblke. In 1963 the first
record fell to Christenson. This was an'
eigh th mile record, and Ii was set at
6.89 seconds at 101 MPH. This was an
AHRA sanctioned event in the
B/Modified class.
F or a period of three years after this
Christenson went almost undefeated. In
fact in 1964 T .C. went without a single
loss.
Three years for anyone bike is a long
life . But for this bike this was only the
start. In 1967 the motor received some
attention including the installation of
a 750 motorcycle drag kit,
At about this time time two major
changes came about in Racing. The flrst
was the introduction of nitro-methane
as a fuel . The second was related to the
first in that fuel inj ection was deemed
necessary to pass the great amoun ts of
fuel that would be consumed. Still
running the same bike wi tli the same
motor, T .C. was by then hitting the high
10.80. With this in mind, figured out
how he got the AHRA quarter mile
record at 10.1 8 sec onds. As John and
T .C. will ' admit, the bike had neve,r run
within a half second of that time before.
1969 was a big year for jhe now
clossly tied pair. After a chan ge in the
injection from Phillip s to Hilborn, low
10 's and h igh 9's be came com m o n
pl ace. So did speeds up to 150 MPH .
About th is time they began to think
about a double. In fa ct th ey even built
one. After looking at other bikes,
h owever, the fin ished bike was junked
without even h avin g a maiden voyage.
T h e c onstruc ti on of these bikes was ,
it must be pointed out, greatly helped
by the support of the people of Norton
Villiers. John Gregory is the Wisconsin
rep for Norton.
The new bike, in eorporatin g the
forseen improvements, became a reality.
It was the first really successful big
double. It took the team to win at th e
Atco, New Jersey Nationals with a time
9 .50 at 157 .961.
The team didn't stop there but went
on to build another better and quicker
bike. This one came off the trailer at
Union Grove in ' 7 1 and qualified with ..
9.80-161plus. The first round saw one
of T.C.'s worst moments. The bike was
staged in oil . A little way out the rider
and bike almost went to the great pits in
the sky.
'
.
In the next two years, with the
addition of a slider clutch 9.20's became
reality. Christenson was the first one to
try a slider clu tch. As John said, "You
can dial in any type of bite you want,
from super smoke to no smoke and
quick times."
.
F or a while the team filled the
runnerup position. The super quick
Larry Weich was on top. As T .C. said
. "T o beat Larry it took at least a 9.00" ;
Lately the bike has seen some major
improvements that have made T .C.
Christenson the quickest. One was a
new bike. The old bike is still around
and even still ridden. Many racers have a
backup bike. The fact is that neither of
T.C.'s two bikes is a backup' bike .
This new b ike had, am ong o th er
impr~)Vements, an almost automatic tw o
speed tran sm ission. The thing handles
well and h as ca rrie d th e fr ont wh eel fo r
mo st o f the strip on many occasio ns.
Sure, m ost tri als or MX riders could do
th e sam e an y day . But let's see y ou do it
with a 3 00 h o rsep ow er an d tw o b ig
heavy motors.
That brin gs us up to th e present and
the Supern ationals at Ontario.
Christenson comp le tely sm ash ed all
co mers with an unbo rken strin g o f eigh t
second pas ses. To reall y put on th e
icein g, a semi-fin al run agains t pave
Campos ye ilded th e world 's fas test run:
8.59 seconds .
T he fin al ru n against Larry Welch
was th e fas test side -by-side r ace in
mo torcycle history , b o th bik es ran in
the eigh ts. Larry Welch had a run in the
8.9 0's, but T .C. Chris ten son did th e
impossible and turned motorcycling's
all-time low elapsed time : 8.52 ! This
netted th e Wisconsin team some $3,500.
According to T .C. " T his is sure going
to pay a lo t of bill s" .
AMA NOISE T EST P ROC EDU R E~_~~~-.-~__~-:-~~
The sound test con d uc ted at 1973 AMA
professional events will be as follows:
I. Generally as stated in the reprint
from the
AMA
News,
titled
"Recommended
Noise
Testing
Method."
2. Machines will b e tested s tan din g still
with gearbox in neutral.
3. The sound te st will be conducted at
5000 engine RPM's for 250cc
machines and 4500 engine RPM's
for 360cc machines.
4 . The sound pick-up (microphone) for
the sound meter will be placed at a
distance of 50 feet (15 .2 meters)
and at a 90 degree righ t angle to the
rear of the machine. (9 0 degrees
from the rear to front center lin e of
the machine.)
.
5. The meter whould be held or pl aced
at a height of 4 feet ( 1.2 meters)
from th e ground and at an angle of
2 d egrees above horizontal.
6. The test sh ould b e con d u cted on a
dirt surface with no buildings, t rees
or o ther reflecti ve surfaces in th e
immediate area. (As near as is
practicable .
7. If th e machine has n o tachometer,
the testing cre w ma y use a counter
which attaches to the ele ctrical
system. If no such device is
. available, the engine speed should be
esti m ated at two-thirds maximum
revolutions.
8. Once the test has commenced, the
im medi a te area ' should remairi'
constant. [i.e. the number of
. persons
and
the number of
motorcycles, cars, etc. present in the
immediate area.)
9. Once the test for a specific meet has
commenced, . all testing will be
conducted by the same perSon(s) .
All test results will be logged by the
tester or his assistant.
.
10. Once the test re sults are logged, a
seal , mark , or inspection sticker
should be placed on the machine to
sh ow that it has passed the test.
II. The type of muffler or silenced
sys tem should be' noted in the log
for purposes of identification. The
exhaust system of the machine
sh ou ld be marked for iden tificat ion
b y th e use of paint, seals or marks,
etc.
12. If muffler or attached silencer is the
type wh ich can be removed' from
. ex haus t p ipe, it then must b e
b olted, pinned o r safe ty wired.
