We use cookies for analytics, advertising and to improve our site. To find out more see our privacy policy.
>
Events
>
2014 - Speedweek, Bonneville, USA

2014 - Speedweek, Bonneville, USA

Meeting people at parties and meetings is the salt in the soup for every true wrencher. A shared beer (one each, to be sure), a little chat about the nightmares in the workshop, a couple of ideas for the next project, and Bingo! You have a plan.

Anyway that's what happened to John and Tom Jørgensen from Denmark. Their plan was to celebrate their 50th birthdays on the racetrack. The first venue was the Orsa Speed Weekend on a frozen lake in Sweden last winter. There they were having fun with a huge iron barbecue, which had loads of combustible power, but speed was lacking. It was however put to good use in securing a steady flow of tasty meat to the hard working W&W crew also at hand at Orsa.

The second track, according to the 17 year old plan of Tom's, were to be the Bonneville Salt Flats. How convenient that AMA (American Motorcyclist Association) had scheduled one of the many speed weeks happening on this legendary salt lake just in time for John's 50th birthday.

This time Tom and John had come with two home-wrenched one-of-a-kind racing Knuckleheads. Tom's bike is called T101, (the first Terminator, remember?) and exudes a certain “we-mean-business” attitude with its electronic injection, belt driven turbocharger (intercooled) and state of the art ignition system. John's heap of Milwaukee metal named “Hammer” is somewhat closer to stock condition and is supposed to compete in a lower class.

Being sympathetic to their plight we sent over our man for the short and dirty (flat track racing) to give the guys a hand and keep the world informed about their progress.

The events so far:

Day 1: The plane gets us as far as Salt Lake City. From there we ride in a rental car to Wendover (Utah), and check out the track. They're busy grooming it, so there is no access. At a solid 32°C the hot air over the salt is shimmering better than in the movies. We drive back to town to the Black&White Café, where all the racers find themselves after the action. The jet lagged body needs some rehydration bad, and we get it in the form of some ice cold beer. Aaah!

Day 2: 1000 hrs local time, many of the teams are waiting at the already simmering track. Everyone is busy unloading stuff and converting the machines from transport to race mode. Between Roots blowers, turbochargers and Nitrous oxide bottles mechanics from all over the world are pushing bikes up and down the pit area to tech inspection. No one is gonna race without a passed inspection. Ah, there are the Danes. Back from some dyno testing in Reno. Sounds promising: Tom's T101 maxed out at 103 bhp @5.500 revs. We're all happy to meet again, even happier that the dyno test went so well. To celebrate this we have the first of many … no, not beers, in this heat the only possible choice is water.

Work comes first: The bikes are checked and readied for tomorrow. They start right up and run like clockwork – no problems there. Looks like it's going to be a good day, if you are prepared. The sun is beating down hard, so heavy sun protection and a sun hat is absolutely mandatory. Funnily, the light gets reflected by the salt and causes sunburns in the most unlikely places. Inside your nose, under your chin, under your ears, under your armpits if you're wearing sleeveless t-shirts, and you-know-where, if you put on shorts … no kidding here.

Tech inspection will be at 0700 hrs local time. Nobody raced today so far. Starting tomorrow until thursday everybody can use the track as often as he likes. If you clock a time you like, you inform the time keepers. Then you have the rest of the day to do the track in the opposite direction. If you had a following wind on the first run, you have to battle a headwind on the second run. Fair is fair. The times are averaged, and you have your official result.

Day 3: The sun comes up behind the mountains in the distance, and the camp awakens. Today is the first day of driving. An electric hum permeates the pit area. Yesterday was waiting, today it's riding. While we are waiting for the official Tech Inspection sticker I hear a noise I never heard before: A machine is tearing across the white plain, only a black speck to the naked eye. That's the International track, the longest of the three, and the farthest out, where the world records are broken. The noise makes my skin creep. The black spot out there vanishes in the shimmering heat. The roar goes on, rattling my bones and spine, until the trap is passed and the throttles shut down. We all watch the vanishing point, as if under a spell.

Tom's T101 gets its approval and is classified as “modified”. No surprise there. John's Hammer tries for the Production Class, that's stock condition bikes. The S&S carb and the late model springer forks from a Softail, together with the rigid frame get him also in the “Modified” class though. Meaning he has to fight it out with the serious machinery, but that's all the same to him: “I don't care, I'm here to have fun!”

For a warm up they ride up and down the pit area and the short test track right beside the pits. Both machines are running smoothly. Everyone is hot to race, and it's waiting in the 4 hour queue before they can make their first run. Just as John is next in line to blast off, a squall moves across the Salt flats, and a heavy shower goes down on the track. The race is cancelled. No more runs for today. Heaven opens all the floodgates, and the salt lake transforms into a lake again. All bikes must get back into the vehicles and tents, meaning 8 kilometers across 15cm of briny water. Tom's injection electronics can't dig this and conk out. Which means pushing. Tom makes it back though, thanks to his trusty carb.

Clearly today no one will make any runs, (boats maybe?). The race organizers comfort us, saying that tomorrow the salt will be dry and better than ever. Everyone packs up and leaves salt flats that are invisible under all that water.

Well, there's nothing that could be done, except of course having a beer at the pool. Good night friends!

Day 4: „Gentlemen, enjoy your day at the pool and the bar - you will have a lot of Racing tomorow.......if it does not rain today"“ That‘s not what you want to hear, when you arrive at the track first thing in the morning, but the race organizers want to avoid destroying the still damp salt by people who try to race and get stuck, and the trucks, who need to go in to pull out those who got stuck.

Staying at the pool sounds like a sound plan B. But: Will the two Knuckles eat salt yet?