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So Speed Week has come and gone at the Bonneville Salt Flats, but for those of us only interested in the two wheel variety of speed freak fun, the Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials are just starting.
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For me this is a bittersweet return. After many years away from what I have become to know as a second home, I am back among old friends and family. The salt conditions are, as many folks have reported, the best they have seen in ten years. With the weather report looking clear into next week, it would seem that each of the 250-some registered riders are poised to smash the record books.
With the track set up complete, we spent the day watching all the riders shiver nervously as they stood in line for tech inspection. Scrutineering, as it is called, is run by Drew Gatewood, and he has broken many hearts at the Speed Trials over the years; exactly what I am hoping doesn’t happen to me this year.
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You see, I am on a spiritual journey of sorts; one that will complete a giant circle in many ways. Me and the guys with Grease & Gears Garage built a bike called War Pony on stage at the IMS shows last year. The plan was to show up here, and run it for a time slip. But this bike has so much more history than that… In fact, it was the bike that built Cycle Source Magazine. After 240,000 miles of scouring the countryside for content, carrying my own mother’s ashes here to Bonneville and Racing in the first Hoka-Hey Challenge and taking my honeymoon on it, a buddy totaled the “Black Pearl” and it would seem its story was over.
Enter Paughco with their bitchin FXR frame, the one that accepts the Twin Cam touring driveline. Seven IMS shows later, we were on our way back to the salt. With a killer engine that Danny and Zipper’s Performance put together, we turned a 114 in the eighth mile at Baker’s Drag Day in Sturgis. Not bad at all. With some confidence built up, we headed out of the Black Hills and set our sights on a bona fide run on the Salt.
Now, at that point I knew that I couldn’t run on the International course for any record. The bike has an open belt primary, and the rulebook clearly states that will not pass. But—and this is one of the coolest parts that BMST has over Speed Week—the Run Whatcha Brung Class. Held on the short course, it’s a way that anyone can get a taste for what it’s like to make a pass at Bonneville.
Ahh my saving grace, surely the RWB Class will have a more lax set of rules so I could run the War Pony. Well dear reader, after talking to Drew it seems that the “no open primary rule” does apply to RWB as well, and as I write this from the edge of the salt I am still unsure if I will get to run this year, but we are working on a solution at this very moment, stay tuned.
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In the meantime, I immediately shifted gears as I was reminded that you never know who you will run into at this meet. Of course the standards like Jay Allen, Santa Claus and all the boys at Buell Brothers Racing, but how about the fact that I am pitting beside the one and only Pete Hill and his beautiful wife Jackie. What an honor. And any night you can find most people taking refuge from the days heat at Carmen’s Black and White. The walls on this place alone are worth a visit as you walk down the halls of Bonneville history with each passing panel of photos and posters.
With a week left in my plight to get the War Pony on the track I have been invited by Drew and the Buell Brothers team to take their “Experience Bike” down the track. This is a program they run to give people a free ride on the salt. All you need are boots, leathers, gloves and a helmet of your own and they take care of everything on the bike end. Pretty sweet deal.
Pete Manning was a welcome face for sure and in spite of not having the Bub Seven streamliner here, he had to come out. We talked at length about the crash in Australia at nearly 350 mph and the condition of Valerie Thompson, the driver who escaped any serious injury from that wreck. Pete tells me that by next year, both Valerie and the Seven will be back at BMST to give it hell.
All in all it seems as if the perfect conditions are set to meet the perfect weather and some of the longest standing records may fall this week at the Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trails. Until I have more Intel, this is your Bikernet embedded reporter… Out.
—Chris Callen
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