By the skin of our teeth we made it out to Bonneville, then things got tricky. I spent he first day waiting in line and arguing my way through Scrutineering while Dylan replaced the timing cover gaskets on the mobile sodomy station; it was pissing out 2 quarts every 200 miles.Then, as it turns out, electricity and salt don't get along. This was made apparent during a testing session when salt bridged from the plug cap and grounded straight to the motor, sweet. It took the rest of the day to regain spark and we would have been dead in the water if it were not for a honeydew melon and another hungry race team. Because all of our money went into the gas and oil tanks we traded the melon for a non-resistor plug and everything started to come together.
Fast-forward to several runs later... wheel spin sucks. At the top of 5th while running 16-28 gears I should have been doing 126mph, I did 109. Super lame. So we stepped it up to a 19 up front to help reduce torque and up the speed potential, that got me to 107. WTF!?! The motor was screaming, I burnt out the temp gauge and that's it?!
After speaking with some other teams, we figured that the bike was under weight by a lot. After scoring some 2" conduit and cement we were 22lbs heavier and 4mph faster, but out of time and options. I could have leaned things out for more HP but to what end? No way I was going to make up a 30mph deficit without going back to the drawing board.
All in all I did my best for this year but my best sucked. Every problem that kept me from my goals was well within my control; no excuses. So in an effort to not fall on my face (again), I took a lot of notes, made some contacts and booked some dynamometer time.
Thing could have been worse though. For instance, if my friend Dylan (pictured on the left) had not been along for the trip, things would have been a complete disaster. Not only is he a great friend for cashing in his vacation time to come along but he is a fantastic mechanic, therapist and acquisition specialist; I wish him all the luck and cougar-tail in the world. Later.