50 Years at Bonneville - Scott Guthrie Remembers

[Old-N-Slow]

SCOTT GUTHRIE REMEMBERS:
50 Years at Bonneville

Chapter #12

?Smart Decisions?

Somehow, I had surprised myself by making a smart decision about which order to run for records:  I would run the fastest record first, and then successively slower records as the engine wore out.  This would turn out to be quite wise?..

In impound, I cleaned the bike with plain water in a cheap plastic garden sprayer.  Running no fairing, I had picked up a lot of salt.  The salt accumulation was reduced substantially by fitting a ?shaker screen? to the front of the bike ? car dirt track style.  The screen (plain old bronze window screen) let cooling air through, but stopped big globs of salt.  I had been paying attention the year before when my hero Warner W Riley had been reprimanded for using duct tape between the fork tubes for the same purpose.  ?Looks like streamlining in a naked class to me? murmured inspector Earl Flanders of the AMA, who ran ?Warnerville? for the bikes until 1978.

Continuing with record inspection, I removed the intake system and heads from the 1957 Harley, careful to exclude salt from the oiling system.  AMA Earl measured my 3.250?bore and 4 5/8?stroke to indicate 1,257cc in a 1,300cc class.  Gasoline seal intact.  Easy as pie!

Next to us in impound was the soon-to-be-famous-forever double-engine Harley designed and built by future Bonneville star Bob George; most recently owned by Leo Hess.  The bike was ridden by drag-racing star Dave Campos.  This odd item clicked off an astounding 208.450 record on GAS.  I remember this as (at the time) the fastest gas record ever for a sit-on bike.  I started thinking about making MY bike a double engine !


 
Photo: RB Racing ? Bob Behn
The talented and often inscrutable Bob George on the left, and intrepid pilot Dave Campos on the right. Notice the confidence inspiring long wheelbase.  The bike is low, and low to the ground.  Car tire in rear; minimalist brakes.  Small size of fuel lines suggest gasoline.  As an artist, I have always loved this photograph. You can see the man between the camera and Bike #40, with his sun-shielding cloth blown hard to his rear.  Is there ANY OTHER sign of wind ?


 
Photo: RB Racing-? Bob Behn
The S&S sponsored George/ Campos beast with fairing.  Quite narrow for lower frontal area.

While taking a break from the inspection process, I walked over to look at the inexplicable Mike Corbin entry, #24A ?Quicksilver?.  This home made contraption appeared to be  welded together from odd parts, with what looked like a Honda CB750 front end.  Minus the brakes, but including a speedometer.

 
Photo:  MIKE CORBIN?S QUICKSILVER:  SCTA?S FIRST ELECTRIC MOTORCYCLE RECORD HOLDER AT 165.367MPH 8-19-74

I had watched Mike?s ?run silent, run fast? bike leave the record start line with almost NO sound !  Kind of a whirr from the F-104 fighter jet starter motor(s) and off he went.  Throttling was easy:  just throw knife switches for each silver oxide (Expensive !) battery (there were five) to supply power.  Corbin would advance through the years to become a famous motorcycle accessory designer and builder, and eventually manufacturing complete electric vehicles.

Turning the current off against 5,000 cold-cranking amps with nothing but knife switches proved to be entertaining !


New record slip in hand, we buttoned up the top end of our bike, and got back into line.  This being a Harley, there was at least a mist of oil around the engine, and the salt crystals stuck.  In the joy of the moment, I somehow missed the clue of the slow return run, and did NOT examine the cylinder bores while the heads were off. 

I just assumed the slower speed was the warmer air??

[Old-N-Slow]

SCOTT GUTHRIE REMEMBERS:
50 Years at Bonneville

Next Chapter #14

?Wasted a Chance for a Record??



After a dinner of white bread sandwiches, we disassembled and examined the engine with my little flashlight in a closed Wendover gas station, next to the ?ethyl? pump. This was before the interstate bypass was built, and all the heavy traffic of Interstate 80 ? connecting Teaneck NJ and San Francisco.

 
Photo - Wendover Will, back when all the neon worked, and his joints were creaky but moving points to the Stateline Hotel.  Seen from the gas station west of the STATELINE grill and Hotel.  Famous ?two-state? caf? with the east side part in Utah, and west part in Nevada ? hence the name.


funneled through ?downtown? Wendover, and past the Stateline Hotel.  Traffic moved slowly on the main street.  Wendover had discovered the power of ?revenue enhancement? by giving tickets for 35 mph in the city 25 mph zone, and most people were aware and discreet.


I had always enjoyed the ?malt shop? at the Stateline Hotel.  They had put a brass strip down the middle of the dining room, dividing the east (Utah) half from the west (Nevada) half.  Radically different laws were enforced within INCHES of each other! Nevada was more permissive on certain matters.

I imagined servers obeying the respective laws for each state; offering soft drinks to the eastern aisle, and whisky to the other side, four feet away.  Church goers on one side watching gamblers with ?their women? and hard liquor on the other side???..

We found no problems with carbs or intake tract, so we inspected the valves by pouring a little gasoline into the ports to check for excess leakage.  Not perfect, but NOT the source of a 15 mph loss of speed.  We went deeper.

I was aware that heat buildup in the Sportster engine ? running full track on gas-station fuel, would be prone to overheating ? hence the aluminum/silver alloy in the cylinders; we were stuck with the iron cylinderheads.  I had increased oil flow to the exhaust valve area in the heads, where head buildup is powerful and debilitating.  In attempt to cool the intake side of the heads, I put extra oil into the intake valve spring area.

That was another nice but unsuccessful idea.  With the triple valve springs, there was no room for valve seals; with no valve seals, the negative pressure of the intake tract sucked  the extra oil through the valve guide directly into the combustion chamber.

Result: mosquito fogging like a two-stroke !

That morning in impound, I had not particularly looked at the bores; the bike had mostly been running fine.  NOW, looking at them in the nighttime gloom, they did NOT look so fine.

In anticipation of the trip, my father had given me a battery-powered fluorescent flashlight, which gave dim, but shadow-less lighting. The rings had gone bad, and ?scuffed up.?  At the time, I couldn?t figure out why (I would later), so I thought I better use some wet-and-dry sandpaper on the bores, put in another set of rings, and hope for the best.

I had ordered two sets of the experimental chrome rings, and had for spare the came-with-the-piston cast iron rings, also two sets.  I was qualified by a substantial margin, and I would hate to ?waste a record day.?

 
photo - History revealed !  My pistons for the 1250cc Harley.  Upper right is a cast racing piston for comparison.  Lower right is a polished cast item, also big bore.  Lower left is a new forged spare piston, and upper left is the used-in-the-race forged unit with the hand-chiseled valve pockets showing.  Used rings are knackered, but piston was quite usable, even after 20 full-power trips down the long black line.

In went the second set of slippery chrome rings.

 
Photo - Actual race alloy cylinders.  The numbers are bogus !  Harley practice is to cast (or stamp) the part number in the cylinder base.  I went through the Harley parts book and found appropriate blank unassigned number spaces, and adopted them for my parts (The R means RACING).  Competitors would secretly look at my engine, see the numbers, and write them down.  Later, they migth call the Harley racing department to buy a set, only to be told there was no such part.  The engineer, after hanging up, might call out: ?Guthrie got another one!?

We cleaned up the engine well, with two little pans and brushes, one with gasoline for cleaning off the oil, and the other with water for removing salt.  Sometimes we had to go back and forth. Engine went together with no additional problems, and we tightened everything up, ready to race in the morning at the 7:00 am marshaling hour.  I had no idea what devastation was already inside the engine, that I could not see.

Off to the bend in the road near the track for an abbreviated night?s sleep.

Bonneville, like much of racing, is often about how well one functions on sleep deficit.

[MAYOMAN]

Chocolate malts at the Stateline could be special. Being from Wisconsin, at dinner in the Stateline Utah restaurant, our crew would order chocolate malts from our waitress. When she brought them to our table, we asked her to take them on her tray over to the bar in the Stateline Nevada and have the bartender add one shot of brandy to each shake. It's a Wisconsin thing, brandy. Sort of like a Bailey's Irish Cream. It seemed to work every time.

[Old-N-Slow]

Great idea, and I wish I had thought of it ! ....................I'll have to try it with a shot of Kahlua ...........................................................................

[Old-N-Slow]

SCOTT GUTHRIE REMEMBERS:
50 Years at Bonneville

Chapter # 15

?I Am Resisting Friction?

I had spent a considerable amount of time in the past three years trying to figure out how to reduce friction INSIDE the engine ? less friction equals more FREE horsepower.  And with a 1957 sportster engine, you don?t start with much power in the first place.

 
Photo - Most gears and shafts had hard chrome treatment to ease friction, as did the primary drive assembly and the cams and oil pump.  Engine sprocket,  clutch chain wheel got the chrome.  Almost everything that ?slid? was treated to reduce friction. Even the piston rings were hard chromed.  Liberal use of aircraft-quality fasteners throughout.




 
Photo - Master machinist RICK BRAY of Long Beach CA and I came up with a plan ? in 1972 ? to put low friction ?superblend? roller bearings on BOTH sides of the crankshaft.  These ?self aligning? bearings would help with the crankshaft misalignment that came at high RPM with a bolt together crank.  I explained the ?new? system to my sponsor Dick O?brien at the Harley race team.

This was some years before the Factory Race team would do the same thing.  Could my work have influenced the race team?

 

Using the same Superblend self-aligning bearing in the transmission reduced the ?scrubbing? of the stock output bearing.

Like everything in racing, nothing can be done without it affecting something else.  The new main bearings meant modifying the crank shaft to fit them, and modifying the transmission main shaft to fit THAT new bearing.  MORE one-of-a-kind parts had to be produced and installed.

Spare parts were no problem;
all I had to do was MAKE them ! 

I also converted the cams from bushing to ball bearings ? maybe that helped too.  That meant special cam shafts for the special cams??.

 

Inner crankcase cam bearings changed from bushing to ball bearings.  Timing side main bearing replaced with a ?Superblend? roller.

 
Shiny bushings will have to go.  Engine will like the low-friction balls much better !

 

Much better now !.............Ball bearings survive better with the ?accidental oiling? system Harley developed before 1930.

So:  How did this work out ?

When the engine was COMPLETELY ASSEMBLED with valves and rings, BUT PLUGS OUT FOR NO COMPRESSION, the engine would ?settle? with both pistons about half-way down the bores.  Turn the crank against the valve spring pressure, and the crank would reliably return to the same rest position! 

The engine had SO LITTLE internal friction that JUST the force of the valve springs was enough to rotate the crank, slide the pistons and move the rings.  Turn the crank either direction, and the valve springs ALONE would return the crank to the ?rest position? ? Is that reduced internal friction?

[Old-N-Slow]

SCOTT GUTHRIE REMEMBERS:
50 Years at Bonneville

Chapter # 16

Double-Engine Harleys are Killing It[/size].

?Tom Elrod goes 200mph on Gas Harley,
Bob George Harley goes 231mph on nitro,
Guthrie just burns up more parts?




Up at dark ? thirty at the Bend-in-the-Road campground, (We HAD an alarm clock this year) and off to the starting line, nicely positioned with my new-for-this-year number of 18.   Since I would be running my second record this morning, I was designated 18B. In the morning cool, two decent record runs gave us our second record in two days at an average of 150.008 mph.  Easily within expectations when the ?fresh engine? record was only two mph faster.  The second set of rings were doing fine, after all.

Impound was largely a ?no questions? deal, since the officials had seen the bike the just morning before.  We removed the top end for measurement, since this was before the SCTA helped us by sealing engines.  Just in case, I replaced the rings with the third ring set, now the cast iron hoops. (the bike was half torn down anyway ? all I had to do was pull the cylinders, replace the rings, and drop the cylinders back on ? maybe an additional 45-60 minutes).  I was a little surprised at the weight of the aluminum cylinders, but remembered the high copper and silver content of the unobtainium KO1 alloy. 

After more pro-active cleansing and cylinder-sandpapering, we buttoned it up in the starting line (I was getting pretty practiced at this), and we changed to another class. Somewhere about this time, I began to wonder where all that hard chrome was going, so we started rinsing out the oil tank and oil lines every pass.  I even washed out the cases by putting gasoline in through the plug used to check crankshaft timing, and draining the cleaning fluid out the sump plug. 

Just more effort, twice a day.

After reassembling the bike in the waiting line, Harley 18C went to the start line to attempt to qualify for a third record. 

We made an opening run that on Wednesday
afternoon qualified us to run on Thursday,
which made us all very optimistic. 

?Just for luck,? I made a ?back up? run to access the engine condition.  A Dismal 117 mph told us that again tonight, we would be in the gas station, and doing our second top end job of the day.

It had never occurred to me that I might need a compression gauge ? or better yet, a leak-down tester.  If I had used those tools, I could have kept up with the disintegration of the ring sets.

I just would have not been able to do anything about it !

In our now-familiar place in the dim and dreary gas station, after the heat somewhat dissipated, we again set to work.

Concerned that my bores were now beyond what I could fix with sandpaper, I trudged tiredly down to Bonneville 200 Club member Warner Riley?s motel room to borrow his hone.  Riley and Nitro man George Smith (George drinking water) were trying to figure out why Warner?s bike was all over the track, and acting scary bad.  They were also trying to figure out why, having committed to a new untested Chapman custom frame, they had overlooked bringing the old frame, ?just in case.?

 
PHOTO.  Warner Riley at Speed. Note excellent riding position: Far back on the long seat, and his back raised for aerodynamic advantage.  Minimal front fairing puts the bike in a partially streamlined class.  NOT much aero assistance !  No flapping drag with tightened leathers. Gloriously LOW bike number: 2.


After a quick call by Warner to the sponsoring dealer in the Chicago area, the old frame was air expressed to the Salt Lake City airport, Picked up and delivered to Wendover, where it replaced the Chapman.  Confidant handling was restored.


 
Photo:  Tom Elrod on track, early in a good run. Elrod, a migrant worker for the IBM Company  (IBM employees were so often posted to new places that they said IBM stood for ?I?ve Been Moved?) surprised many by going over 200mph with his gasoline powered 3000cc class Harley.  Elrod, like Bob George, had forced two 1,500cc Harley twins into a single frame.  Elrod would repeat the 200 mph effort in 1979, but with two Kawasaki engines to become the first BIKE rider to exceed 200 mph at Bonneville on two sit-on different brands, and to join the Bonneville 200 mph Club.


 
PHOTO. Speaking of frames, look at this incarnation of the Bob George double engine Harley. Owner Bob in the saddle.  Rare GOODYEAR Bonneville land speed tires front AND rear indicate a serious intent ? the tires were initially rated at 300 mph.  The frame looks like an atomic collision between two (2) shovelhead Harley engines mashed into one extended frame.  The frame looked to be metallic painted, molded and pinstriped.  Did this bike start as a CHOPPER project ?

PHOTO. The huge fuel lines speak of SERIOUS Nitromethane use.  Bob, in his leather racing pants, dress casual shoes and a give-away Bonneville shirt. Notice the clear plastic tank vent line down the right front fork.  In the event the tank expelled, Nitro would liberally lubricate the front tire??.._Probably would have reduced the steering effort over 200 mph.  BOB BEHN photo


Back in the gas station once again that night, and using a borrowed half inch drill, with access to the station?s electrical outlet, I powered up Riley?s hone and made the bores more attractive, and fitted the 4th set of rings ? my last new set - since Sunday.  There was an occasional breath of cool breeze to move the still-hot air. Slowly, the cooling night brought the desert smell of dust and faraway rain.  Always dust. I was clueless as to WHY the rings were failing at such a high rate !

I doubted we could set any additional records with the engine doing so badly. 
[/b]

PHOTOS:  In the original articles, lovingly published by Wendy at the BONNEVILLE RACING NEWS, there were PICTURES !...It is a little too cumbersome for me with my 75 year old pre digital brain to post those here since it involves photobucket and things like that.  IF you go to my facebook account, the pictures are attached to THAT version of these articles..........https://www.facebook.com/scott.guthrie.3154.........

[jacksoni]

Air filters? Salt ingestion?

[Old-N-Slow]

Salt ingestion was very popular with motorcycle
engines - most of which did not want the restriction of an air filter.

My experience was that if I shut the engine OFF while still going
 straight ahead on the TRACK, the salt uptake was minimizes.

When I turned the bike off on the soft unprepared sides
 of the track, the front wheel would throw a BUNCH of salt around.

When you look at a bike after a run at Bonneville, 90% or more
of the visible salt comes AFTER the on-track part of the run.

I was never able to identify that salt had done any
appreciable damage to the inside of my engines - including
the 2-strokes that send the salt THROUGH the crank cases.

[jacksoni]

I presume in the next edition you are going to tell us what you came up with....

[Old-N-Slow]

Scott Guthrie: More Than The Sultan Of Speed

A true champion means more than going fast.
By Nick Ienatsch- CYCLE WORLD Magazine
February 11, 2020
Scott Guthrie
Scott Guthrie: Hugely fast on land and in water, but his give-back outweighs his records.Scott Guthrie Collection

You will find the name Scott Guthrie in the Bonneville Salt Flats record books almost 100 times, as a rider aboard Harley-Davidsons, Suzuki Hayabusas, Yamaha TZ-based machines, and as a team owner. He?s been over 200 mph more than 200 times and has the time slips to prove it. He has teamed with John Levie to slaughter the streamliner sidecar record to the tune of 320 mph. This same man appears in the Masters Swimming record book too, from 1980 to 2005, as a many-times national and world champion.

Someone dubbed Guthrie the ?Sultan of Speed? whether on the salt or in the pool, but this week?s article isn?t a rehash of this guy?s speed, it?s a celebration of his humanity from a few of the riders he has helped.

My Scott Story: Daytona 250GP

I will start with my own Guthrie story. Daytona 1991. My tuner Steve Biganski and I were there for our first race on the new V-twin Yamaha and it wouldn?t rev over 12,000 rpm. Guthrie and Biganski had raced TZ750s against each other. When Scott wandered into our garage, Steve mentioned our problem.
ADVERTISEMENT / ADVERTISE WITH US
1991 Yamaha TZ250
Pictured is my 1991 Yamaha TZ250. Ripping!Nick Ienatsch

If there?s a Mr. TZ, it?s Scott Guthrie. He told Steve to check the spark-plug caps, and sure enough, one had too much resistance. Presto, the bike revved like it should in the next practice and we had to lengthen the gearing! But there?s more?because Guthrie worked with windscreen maker Leif Gustafsson (who we were sharing a garage with) to revise our bubble and had reworked our fairings based on his top-speed expertise, and he worked with me on my tuck. This all came together to put me on the podium. Guthrie?s hard-earned awareness of engines and aerodynamics had just given me a lifelong memory?and education.
Bonneville records
All plaques are Bonneville records, all bikes are TZ-based record holders. After dominating Bonneville and other top-speed venues, Guthrie began to help other racers succeed with the Scott Guthrie Racing Team.Scott Guthrie Collection
More Help

After Scott helped John Levie to the sidecar record, a bunch of fun stories came out of the woodwork regarding Scott?s quiet help over the years. Here are a few.

Wayne Pollack:
ADVERTISEMENT / ADVERTISE WITH US

I can say without Scott?s help and mentoring, I would not have gone over 250 mph. I am truly grateful for all of the time I got to spend with Scott and look forward to our future times together.

Walt Kudron:

My second visit to the Maxton Mile [a World War II air base runway in North Carolina] was in September 2006. I wanted to get in the 2 Club (200-mph club). After diligently studying the records, I figured running naked was my only shot. There was a 204 record.
ADVERTISEMENT / ADVERTISE WITH US

I tried and tried, and was one mph short. By this time, Dave and Scott had been helping me quite a bit. I conferred with Scott, seeking advice.

He took a look at everything, and said, ?Let me see your tuck.? I showed him what passed for my tuck. It looked like s?t. Scott expressed dismay at my riding gear. It was a leather First Gear zip-together road suit. And it was way too baggy. Scott said, ?You have stuff hanging out all over. Get some duct tape and streamline yourself.?

My ?crew? then proceeded to have a grand old time taping the hell out of me. They were taping away, with Scott going, ?Put some there, and there, etc.? It was so tight around my stomach I could barely breathe, and he said, ?Now tuck.? He walked around, said, ?Good, good, some here, some there?? When he got to my rear end, he waved his hand back and forth and said, ?And do something with that whole mess!? and turned and walked away. Well, after the laughter subsided, the guys went to vigorously taping and the comments flew.
ADVERTISEMENT / ADVERTISE WITH US

I went 204 mph on the next run and got in the 2 Club. Scott presented me with my hat, which was one of DaveO?s very own that he gave to me.

Of all the crazy things I have done in my life, that ranks right up there as one of the biggest rushes I have ever experienced. I was on Cloud 10. Scott and DaveO went on to help me achieve many other goals in racing that I would have never done without their help. Truly. I still have the champagne cork from the bottle Scott and [his wife] Ellen opened with me to celebrate.

Jason McVicar:

My Scott story started in 1996 when I brought a nice little two-stroke RG500 to Bonneville. I figured I was going to set the world on fire. During the week, a man in a funny hat kept poking his head into our pits and making strange comments. I wasn?t sure how to respond, so I ignored him.

Later I learned that was the Scott Guthrie! He had more lines in the record book than anyone else by far and I figured he could probably teach me a thing or two.

A couple years passed, and I showed up with my Yamaha R1. I ran 206 mph on fuel and received my red hat from none other than Scott Guthrie and the 2 Club crew (200-mph club). We set five records at Speed Week the next year. I would have set seven if I had listened to Scott!

I got a call from Scott to come to Maxton [North Carolina] the following spring. I threw my leg over Scott?s nitrous ?Busa (cleanest bike I had ever ridden) and got into the Maxton 2 Club. Scott also invited me to Texas where I met Terry Kizer and Shane Stubbs. These were great times! Fast company and great racing!

With Scott?s guidance and sponsorship, we ran a turbo ?Busa in 2005?2008. The bike went 235 mph naked one way and also set the first SCTA (Southern California Timing Association) sit-on-bike record over 250 mph.

After my crash in 2008, I was pretty down and Scott?s calls were a nice escape from my workday. I ended up selling Scott my bikes and a few spares I had left and went to playing with cars. Fast-forward a few years and Scott called to offer my bike back. I thanked him for the offer but, unfortunately, I wasn?t in a financial position to buy it back. In typical Scott-speak, he said, ?There is no money involved, I would like you to have the bike.?

The older I get, the more I realize that racing is secondary, and it?s the relationships formed by a common interest that are the most important part of our passion. I?m truly thankful that many years ago a guy in a funny hat stuck his head into my pit. We have become great friends and he has been a great life mentor to me?and we aren?t done yet!

Paul Verizo:

Scott and I went to the same high school in Sarasota, Florida; he was two years ahead of me. We were also on the swim team. Although, he was a contender and I was second string. He lived a few blocks away; I remember hanging in his room looking at the J.C. Whitney catalog and teen-macho?ing about what we could buy to make his mother?s 1950 Mercury flat-head coupe V-8 a hot rod.

About a dozen years ago, my brother David alerted me to Scott?s successes at Bonneville and of his nickname: ?God.? (His bikes go the fastest and they never break down.) We reconnected and the connection has ramped up significantly in the last few years. I have spent many hours with Scott and his wonderful wife Ellen in Tallahassee; a lot of memories, catching up, and a lot of ?Jeez, this getting old stuff is a whole new ball game.? Like his leathers don?t fit so well anymore!

There is a common denominator in all these Scott Guthrie stories: Scott excelled, but he shared what he knew and always wants others to do well. That is the hallmark of a true champion, not just on the salt flats but in life.

Getting older has both advantages and disadvantages. The latter tend to be what most people focus on. If there is one advantage that I can embrace, it is being able to see the big picture. Life stories, values, lessons learned. Scott Guthrie was a vague friend a half century ago, now a man I embrace late in my life.
hot rod
Paul and Scott discussed hot-rodding mom?s flattie and that hot-rod gene is still strong. Here is a recent picture of Scott and wife Ellen in the Brock Yates Roadster, part of the Guthrie collection.Scott Guthrie Collection

Joe Timney:

I was struggling to get over 200 mph at Loring [Maine]?197, 198, 199?when Scott said, ?Tuck your wings in, what size shoe are you hanging out in the wind??

[I got] 200-plus and a 2 Club hat the next run?all one needs to do is ?listen? to Scott. Thank you, Scott, for all you have done through the years.

John Levie:

Reminds me of the day that I was sitting in impound and some jerk asked me if the bike I qualified was a racebike or a showpiece. He explained that the handlebars, seat, number plates, and just about every other small detail that I had worked on so diligently to be aesthetically pleasing was nothing but drag. Honda 50s have no room for drag, come to find out.

After he said, ?I?m Scott Guthrie,? I quickly changed my outlook on the guy telling me what was wrong; he went from jerk to ?Sultan of Speed.? I knew we would be great friends, once I learned how to decode Guthrie-talk.

After a five-mph improvement on what was a 50-mph record, I found myself looking for 10-percent speed improvements in every aspect of the 10-year-strong partnership with my land speed mentor.

He has become more eloquent with age.
John Levie and Scott Guthrie
John Levie and Scott Guthrie on the starting line: two dominant land speed record holders.John Levie Collection

Tim Holder:

E. Don Smith took me to my first land speed event in 2003. I knew no one except for him. There was an older guy pitted behind us. The guy came and spoke to me a few times and checked out my bike and setup. After three licensing passes, I was ready for my 200 Club hat.

Run after run?179 mph. I was stumped. I knew my setup should go 200. That older guy walked over again and asked how my runs were going. I explained my disappointment. He started to educate me on motor oil and made a suggestion and walked away.

Don walked up and asked what we had just talked about. I told Don that the man was crazy and said I should dump my expensive oil, go to Wal-Mart and buy some GTX Castrol for tomorrow?s runs.

Don looked at me and said, ?That?s Scott Guthrie. If he says to run chicken s?t, you better look for a chicken coop!? I followed Scott?s instructions and my first pass the following morning was 12-mph faster and we improved from there.
Scott with Nick at Bonneville
A few years ago I met Scott at Bonneville to run his turbo Hayabusa, but it popped under Levie during a warm-up run. Disappointing, but the time spent with Scott, John, and their team was terrific, not just on the salt but over extended dinner conversations. Previous to being one of the fastest motorcyclists on the planet, Scott was a schoolteacher, so discussions cover a wide variety of subjects.Cycle World Archives
The Real Deal

Any rider who has succeeded in competition has stories similar to these. Somebody helped them with the right information at the right time. Every one of my instructors at Champ School can remember back to the exact moment, the precise information, and the singular person who contributed help to get them to the next step.

As I heard more and more stories about Scott Guthrie, I started to think about this column. Guthrie?s expertise is one thing, his success another, but it is his humility and openness to share his knowledge to allow others to prosper that makes him the real deal to me and so many land speed competitors.

And this is what Scott Guthrie is establishing: a pay-it-forward community in the two-wheeled land speed world. The men and women Scott has helped have been taught a valuable lesson: How to live like a true champion. The Sultan of Speed?s legacy will never end.

More next Tuesday!

[Old-N-Slow]

I presume in the next edition you are going to tell us what you came up with....

yes

[Old-N-Slow]

SCOTT GUTHRIE REMEMBERS:
50 Years at Bonneville

Chapter # 17

Scott Guthrie: poor engine builder AND
lousy tuner.

The morning dawned bright and a little cool ? the way deserts do. 

The bike needed little attention, and I had time to chat with friends while Ellen, the starting crew and I enjoyed a taste of fresh-made drip coffee.

I was NOT confident !

However, we were able to set a third record with the same bike ? which I think was the best ever for the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) at the time.  We had equaled a national mark never exceeded by ANYONE, and we were proud!

We were able ? somehow ? to keep MOST of the horsepower INSIDE the engine for our third set of two morning record runs, but it was becoming very public knowledge that I was either a poor tuner, or a poor engine builder; maybe both . 

Vincent rider Bob Guptill us watched from the return road with a friend, and they both remarked about how badly my engine was running; popping and banging all the way down the track.  ?Shooting Ducks? it would be later called by veteran announcer Glen Barrett.

With only one vehicle on course at a time, there was NO doubt whose engine was making funny sounds.  With the remarkably LOUD banging the engine was making, it was NO trouble for the badly running bike to be heard for MILES.

Embarrassing !

 
Photo by Rollie Free 1974.  Bob Guptill aboard his 1000cc Vincent powered Norton chassis, assisted by World ? Renowned Vincent Expert (the late) Mike Parti, of North Hollywood.  All three men part of the great Vincent history at Bonneville. Mike Parti went on to curate the Jay Leno motorcycle collection.
 
Photo by RB Racing? Bob Behn.  The morning after setting our third record, we again pitted in impound next to the astounding Bob George Double.  Bob had given a heavy tip of the nitro can, and Dave Campos had just hammered out the all-time fastest Bonneville record for sit-on bikes at 231.597mph.  The class record still stands, unthreatened, 46 years later.  Bob and Dave would team up later to set the ultimate bike record at 322mph, (Almost 100 mph faster) a mark that would stand for more than 20 years. At the time, there was no one faster motorcycle rider than Campos in the world, on a sit-on bike.   I believe that Dave is the only rider to be BOTH world?s fastest streamliner driver AND world?s fastest sit-on rider at the same time.  Today, I would be worried about the center of pressure vs the center of gravity.  Notice, no openings for cooling air ? Bob George, a patternmaker by trade ? had made the engine water cooled !  25 years later, Suzuki would use this fairing style in 1999 for the Hayabusa. What did Bob George know , and when did he know it? A study in contrast of purpose:  300HP nitro motorcycle assisted by 36 HP Volkswagen van.


Bob Guptill?s friend Mike Parti wondered how I could run in the 150?s mph with such an obviously ill-tuned engine.  Bob observed that they better be careful since if I ever got it ?cleaned out? there was no telling if anybody?s record was safe. 

 
Photo.  The banging and popping was NOT a tuning situation; it was all the uncontrolled engine oil passing the bad rings and ?wetting the plugs.?  By this time, I had started to just leave in the hotter warm-up plugs, in an effort to keep the fire lit in the heavy oil environment.  I was using the Bomar-modified Fairbanks Magneto, and the sparks grew hotter with increasing RPM; I just had to keep the engine spun up hard.  No worry, Fairbanks Morse made some of the finest lawn mower engines in all the land??.


The worst was yet to come???.

That morning, after sputtering, pluffeling  and banging through two-way record runs, the bike passed the 3rd record tech.  I felt lucky it ran well enough to drive from the track to the impound area!

While staggering from lack of sleep, I wandered over to Warner?s spot in impound.  Riley?s engine was out of the frame and sitting down on the salt, top end removed, with one steel connecting rod bent almost double after six miles of heavy nitro use.  The piston crown on that rod?s piston was deformed by the power of the nitro, looking like it was Silly Putty pushed down by a giant thumb.

Assuming their race week was over, I politely asked if they could maybe fix their engine.  Warner, always well prepared, said: ?Well, we have two spare engines, but the best transmission in in one engine, and the better cams in the other, so we are trying to figure out how to do this.?

I quietly asked for another loan of the hone, and Warner said:  ?Just keep it for the rest of the week.  If we leave before you, just mail it back.? 

This particularly thoughtful of Warner,
since it was his records I was breaking?..

Trying to stay awake and on task, I realized that here I was, within TOUCHING distance to FOUR record-qualified Harley racers: Guthrie, Riley, Campos and Elrod.  The last THREE of whom were over 200mph.  It did not occur to me that that might never happen again at Bonneville.

So we washed off the bike and carefully removed my only cylinders ? no spares.  We gave them another touch from Warner?s borrowed hone, and in went our first ?reconditioned? set of USED rings ?no new parts left!


We slumped back out to the track to attempt to quality.

Standing near the start line, I was able to have a relaxed moment, standing by the bike in my leathers, thinking about the upcoming run down the relentless salt.  Ahead of me toward the east, the afternoon cloudless sky was blue in the way that only desert sky can be.

As I held the bike up ? no kick stands on real race bikes please ? I felt a surprise cooling breeze from behind me, and the afternoon sun darkened perceptibly.  Behind me ? and behind my wife Ellen, who was comfortably reading behind the wheel of the van- a HUGE storm front was quickly blowing in from the west of Wendover.  As I looked upward, the storm front raced into the starting area ? winds maybe 40mph and gusting.

The wind was so hard, I struggled to hold the bike upright.  Ellen, seeing my struggle, jumped out of the van to assist me.  The gale-force wing swung her front door 180 degrees forward, bending the hinges.  Together, we brought the bike back against the front bumper of the van, where we could tie it upright.

In minutes, the storm had blown over the eastern hills, and was gone with minimal rain.

Although we were racing within a few hours,
the door of the van never worked right ever again.

A nice qualifying run on the rain-softened salt showed a surprising 155mph ? within 1 mph of the best ever speed.  We gambled we were good to run for the fourth record attempt.  This time, there were NO ?extra runs.?  NO gratuitous engine wear on the engine!

We ?gas stationed? the bike yet again.  As the procession of interstate-semi-trucks passing us by, we labored in the gloom.   Truck drivers, maybe looking for a ?rest stop? in Wells, Nevada, paid us little mind.

Carefully, the bike was cleaned, and the top end of the engine removed and examined in the fading August twilight.

With only one (1) run, the formerly good used rings were now fully shot. 

AND, we were out of parts.

[Old-N-Slow]

SCOTT GUTHRIE REMEMBERS:
50 Years at Bonneville

Chapter # 18

Last Chance !

 
Photo - For a change of pace ? and to be near Warner Riley?s hone and electric drill, we pitted at the old Western Caf? and Service Station.  Fortunately for us, they had left some interior lights on, since we had used up all our flashlight batteries.

Photo - STYLES of the 70?s.  Mike Corbin and daughter Kelly chat with then - skinny Author Guthrie on right???..Guthrie sports a custom t-shirt made just for Bonneville 1974 featuring the CHECKERED DEMON (Remember your ZAP Comix).  Mike?s straw hat has 1974 SCTA/BNI black and white ID front and center.  Both men with ?hippie? leather work.  Mike climbs power poles to recharge his bike?s silver batteries, and Scott drives one-handed at 150mph??Are these guys totally nuts ?  ??..Well, it IS Bonneville ! Corbin Family Photo, T shirt design by Ila Kamper.

We were now to the point of going through all the used rings and picking the best of the previously-rejected items.  Night-time dust and day-time salt surrounded us, and ?clean? engine assembly was ? as usual - impossible.  I thought we could get by if there was a little bit of dust and salt in the engine, but we oiled everything liberally ? a ?dry? engine was just too scary!

We assembled three-piece oil rings from different used sets.  From hopefully looking like factory pros, we were reduced to picking through bad compression rings to find the least-damaged parts, and sanding them smooth enough to use for one more run!

We had used up all the new gaskets ? which were few to begin with, and I started cleaning the old ones with gasoline and lacquer thinner to get off the old gasket compound.  The copper head gaskets I reused by annealing them hot over the camp stove.  I would put in an annealed set, and when there was time ? like at breakfast ? anneal another used set.

Off to a troubled sleep at the bend in the road.

As every day, we woke up this final Friday before dawn in our modest little van in the camping area.  I slipped out of the makeshift bed and directly into the van driver?s seat.  While I drove the 10 minutes to the starting area, my wife Ellen made herself even more beautiful and carefully put in her contact lenses. With a long day in the hammering sun upcoming, eye cleanliness was precious!

We went off to the starting line for record runs.  I was trying to ignore the pressure of setting an historic fourth record this week ? which had never been done with the same bike.  Others too were deliberately not noticing, or mentioning, the possibility. The same way nobody wants to jinx a pitcher headed for a no-hitter.

That was fine, I was nervous enough for all of us.

As I twisted into my tight and cold leathers, Ellen made fresh drip coffee with the camp stove on our little folding table.  Fresh-made hot coffee a delight for the ever-smaller group hovering at the starting line.  Few of us had survived the week, and most folks were already on their way home.

Rather than wear out the suspect piston rings while extensively warming up the engine on the cold morning, I put fresh oil from cans into a little pot, and heated it on the camp stove.  The oil should heat the engine, not the engine heat the oil.  While the oil simmered, I heated the engine with a propane torch for additional insurance.

With minimal warm up, just enough to circulate the warm oil, I held onto the door handle of the van and waited for the starter?s signal.

I hoped I had enough engine left to get one more record.

Starter Bob Higbee signaled, and off we went toward floating mountain, against the rising sun.  Hammering from the start line, I used everything I had to accelerate ? this was NOT practice, and this was what we had come for ? a World Speed Record.

NO holding back. 

If the rings were gonna go bad ? let them!

[Old-N-Slow]

SCOTT GUTHRIE REMEMBERS:
50 Years at Bonneville

Chapter #19

Dumpster Divers Attempt the Improbable!

I had been working toward this
moment for five years, now it was
down to the next 90 minutes. 

Was history to be made, or an historic failure?

Quickly away from the starting line, I accelerated quite hard ? rings be dammed! 

Shifting fiercely through the gears, I dropped the transmission into high gear at peak RPM.  The bike pulled well, and I had some small hope of success. 

The morning sun in my eyes made it a little hard to see the tach, so I just concentrated on finding ?hard? spots on the late-week, torn-up track, for best traction.  Glorious weather made it a pleasure to ride, and I?m sure the lower temperature helped cool the engine.  NOW, heat would be my enemy!

Something about Chuck Berry, ?Maybelline? and ?cold water under the hood doin? my motor good? flashed through my mind as I accelerated.

My confidence and reverie would soon be shattered.

At about the 1 and ? mile flags (basically one third way down the track), the banging and popping started again, and every duck within 20 miles was on full alert!  I could actually feel the bike slowing!  And ? speaking of lawn mowers -  I used a mower racing trick.

On this, my ?down? record run; while holding the throttle open at around 150mph with my right hand, I CAREFULLY snaked my left hand to the rear spark plug on the left side of the engine.  No fairing, and so open to the 150MPH hurricane-force winds battering my helmet and shoulders with no wind protection. One hand on the bars at 150 mph, mile after mile.

There were patches of soft salt, and that allowed the rear tire to spin.

The bike wanted to go sideways, and I was having trouble making the bike go straight ahead !
 

PHOTO.  My hand was protected from engine heat and sparks by my leather glove; I partially withdrew the rear spark plug cap, and made the spark ?jump the gap.?  Presto, plug (temporarily) cleaned.  I repeated the process with the front plug.  Good running momentarily restored!  Five seconds later, duck hunting again; so rinse and repeat.  I was just waiting for this poor abused engine to give up on me.





I shut off the engine the nanosecond I passed the final set of timing lights, and coasted to a stop.  Instead of driving the bike off-track to the northern impound area, we would have to load the bike into the cramped van and haul the bike to the turn around.

I was trying to save the last vestiges of the rings.

Alone on the salt for a few moments, waiting for Ellen to pick me up, I found myself wondering HOW I had come to this point.

Having never even ridden a Harley Davidson, I had purchased my first one in 1968 (which I still own) less than 6 years before.




 
Photo - Our beloved 1967 Dodge A108 van, painted Harley racing colors, orange, black and white.  1957 Sportster engine in 1972 Harley XRTT chassis with #8. (#8 also on back of Van). 1967 Sportster in center, converted to front disc brake in 1970.  1917 Harley on left, in restoration.

Now, less than six years later, - as a self taught mechanic - here I was setting multiple world speed records on a similar bike!

Still waiting alone in the eerie quiet of the distant salt, the morning sun was warming my face with my helmet in my hand. 

I was convinced we had no hope for that magical fourth record.

PHOTOS:  In the original articles, lovingly published by Wendy at the BONNEVILLE RACING NEWS, there were PICTURES !...It is a little too cumbersome for me with my 75 year old pre digital brain to post those here since it involves photobucket and things like that.  IF you go to my facebook account, the pictures are attached to THAT version of these articles..........https://www.facebook.com/scott.guthrie.3154.........

[Old-N-Slow]

SCOTT GUTHRIE REMEMBERS:
50 Years at Bonneville
Chapter #20
Dumpster Divers Start Their Final Attempt.

From five years preparation, it was
now down to the next 45 minutes.

Safely into far-end impound, and glancing at my north - bound time slip,
I saw we were almost one mile per hour over the current record. 
If I could keep up my speed on the return run home to the west, there might be a record.

A puff of wind could make the difference.

After entering the timing lights at good RPM,
the engine started giving up, and I could again feel it slowing. 
It slowed the whole last mile.

Somehow, I had brought enough life from the salvaged rings
that the bike had maintained speed while struggling north down
 the timed mile, so I did have a mathematical chance.

I was close to the fourth record and if I was able to manage to
go back down the course without having the abused engine lose
too much speed again, maybe we could do the impossible.

My dream was SO close!

At the turn-around, which would last no more than an hour,
we would be allowed to make NO REPAIRS!  I would be allowed
 to adjust the carburetors, set the ignition timing and oil the drive chain,
check the valves.  Change plugs if needed.  NO changing the sprockets. 
Putting air in the tires was OK, but NO changing tires. 

If I had a flat, we were done!

NO changing piston rings either!

The one-hour time limit for going back on the second
(back-up) run was strict!  AND, the clock started to run
from when I STARTED my first run.  By not driving to the
impound area, and by having to load the bike into the van,
and then remove it, we were consuming valuable time!

We used the brief turn around to pull out the oiled plugs,
and I installed my last set of new spark plugs.  I could only
hope these new plugs would keep sparking for the last three miles.

In those years, there were no auto parts houses in Wendover,
and nobody else at Bonneville used my odd Harley hot plugs. 

If that didn?t work, a quick 120 mile trip to Salt Lake City would
 have to be made, and waste the day.  Besides, if I couldn?t have
working plugs NOW, I would NOT get the hoped-for record.

We might have the chance to re-qualify on Saturday,
but that was a big risk.  At Bonneville, you never know
if there WILL be a tomorrow to race. 

There could be wind or rain. 

Maybe the volunteers will have had enough,
and they would just go home.

Still in my leathers, but helmet and gloves off,
I lifted the bike onto a stand that allowed me to
rotate first the back and then the front wheels for inspection.

Photo.  On the return run southwest, I kept up the ?plug-cap?
routine the whole run, three miles with
only one hand on the bars at 150 mph.
Harley Factory does NOT recommend this procedure at 150 mph??.

I dipped water from the drink cooler and washed the salt
from the tires and carefully examined the treads for damage. 
I did NOT want a tire to ?go down? on this run. 

The bike was hard enough to control as it was.

It was quietly ? never publicly - said that there were
occasionally sharp metal objects on the track ? usually
 the result of exploding engines ? that were NOT found
 by the crews keeping the salt clean and groomed.

I was just being careful.

Some years later, that problem would almost
cost the life of my rider Jason McVicar.

My tires looked good, and the tire pressure was unchanged,
but I had one more problem.

I again had to do some careful planning,
and do it quickly, since I had to run within the next ten minutes.

If I nailed the throttle on the return run, and killed the struggling
rings too early in the run, I would never develop the power
to get the bike up to full speed.

Result: no record.

OR, I could baby the bike, and accelerate slowly and save the engine. 
THAT might save the rings, but result in never getting up to a high
enough speed to actually be fast enough to challenge the record.

Again, no record!

The decision was to just do the same thing I had been doing,
and hope that what worked before would work again.

We buttoned up the bike for the return,
and rolled it off the work stand and into line.

The line of vehicles waiting to return was shorter than an hour ago.

There were fewer of us ?going back,? since
some had broken engines on the way east.

Outwardly calm, I sat on the bike waiting the few minutes
for the starter?s gesture.  My helmet and gloves on,
and my face shield up. 

In a now-familiar motion,
the starter looked down at the salt,
listening to his headphones. 

He then looked at my bike and quietly spoke
my racing number into the microphone.

I knew we were close to the start!

After a pause of a few seconds,
the starter looked me in the eyes,
and raised his eyebrows.

Nervously, I nodded my head.

PHOTOS:  In the original articles, lovingly published by Wendy at the BONNEVILLE RACING NEWS, there were PICTURES !...It is a little too cumbersome for me with my 75 year old pre digital brain to post those here since it involves photobucket and things like that.  IF you go to my facebook account, the pictures are attached to THAT version of these articles..........https://www.facebook.com/scott.guthrie.3154.........