yeh sorry Bear, was too busy feeling sorry for my wallet to report on the racing.
As it turned out the battle between Finny and I was good racing.
Ol finny come very prepared this year, had a good crew, a reed valve motor and a piston port motor, the spare motor syked me out as he built a amazing perspex crate and had it on display in his / our pit . Was good enough for a coffee table in the house.
On the Monday run he run a 157 mph first up but not allowed as the wind was a roaring cold southerly 22MPH directly behind him.
After him We had our first qualify run ( safety run ) at 100mph bike handled straight, motor was running easily, we almost had to deal with crowd control at the start line with people so enthused with an ol Honda it was almost a problem. Plus with the rollers it was like an entertainment circus.
Tuesday ..Next day conditions perfect , cool slight tail breeze, Finny had a run first again but popped his engine in second gear not far from the start line, We had our run in morning as well, bike sounded good had to do the 125mph licence run and be plus or minus 5MPH or repeat, we set up a GPS and Jamie nailed it at 124.9 for a full mile then he accelerated at full throttle for a burst up to around 135 to 140 approx before backing off and braking so he didnt break out his limit 125mph, with the smaller 16 front tooth sprocket.
At this stage we got a bit excited, Jamie was confident it would pull to 150 mph plus ( he is a Honda mechanic at local dealer so has a good feel) so we went back to pits changed the front sprocket to 17 / 43 and rejoined the que ready for another run while conditions were perfect. Unfortunately lots of incidents on track to delay and we got within 10 positions from start before they stopped racing for the day.
Wednesday, we qued the whole day but no run, Finny changed to his piston port motor and went to the practice track to run it.
Thursday.. up super early to get a morning start, weather perfect again, salt hard and dry. We thought this record will happen today , finny or us will get it, hopefully its close for both of us.
Finny ran first and seized his second motor with no time, then we ran Jamie hit the first timed mile at 8,300 RPM but motor popped just as he was entering the mile, the official timing van do a first quarter mile time at the start of the mile and had him at about 140MPH as he was deaccellerating.
Shared a beer with Finny and his crew ( ol Bob Voumard was with him 4 times Aust motocross champion , poor ol Bob on his last legs with the big C) then we packed up and started the drive home.
Frankly I have learnt a lot this year, its so different from other forms of racing and it has taken me time to adjust and get my head around it, the forum boys have really really helped, it feels like being part of the worlds biggest race team
Deep down in my mind I feel we have an engine that can run 150mph, naked on the salt and that has always been my goal. To emulate the Factory CR 750 at 150 plus mph with full fairing on bituman BUT to do it naked on loose salt was the challenge for me and I think we can do it. That would mean the ol sohc forum combined has produced something as good as a works bike, a big challenge.
The other thing that has made me happy was just as the CR 750 had standard swing arm, so too our bike ran straight and true with std wheelbase and no lead as compared to other bikes in class carrying 150 kg of lead with long swing arms and I cant help but not want to go there. Currently no need , as the old stocky runs on rails and still lets the rider get his bum over the back wheel.
Better stop raving and get working for next year, the old saying , when the green flag drops the bull #$%* stops.
ciao johno
