Well, I finally did it. I got to cross off one more thing on my (Try to do Before I Die List)! It was "Break the 200MPH barrier at an official Land Speed Event".
Last weekend Jana and I went down to El Mirage for my first Land Speed Race. On Friday, a friend, 'Jason McVicar', stopped by on the way down to El Mirage and loaded up my bike, tools and gear in a 40 foot toy hauler. The drive took 22 hours. The bike I brought was a 2005 turbo Hayabusa. It's my street bike that I use at the drag strips on the weekends. I shortened the rear axle to 60 inches and safety wired and strapped things to make the Busa legal.
When we arrived at the dry lake on Saturday the temp was 114 degrees. The aluminum on the outside of the trailer was 162 degrees. Anything black was hazardous to touch. I was too late to get my bike tech'ed that afternoon so I would have to wait until Sunday morning. I walked over to the rookie orientation meeting to get my helmet sticker and then drive the course. As we drove the course I couldn't help but smile. This was going to be sooo cool!
The next morning we trailered the bike to Tech and got registered. With in an hour I had the bike lined up in the rookie lane. I got to make 3 passes that day to gain my "Category A" competition license. The night before, I decided to run my bike in the Naked class so the fairings came off and all the loose wiring and plumbing got taped and wire tied to keep it from flapping in the wind.
My first 2 passes in the morning were a piece of cake. There was a tail wind and I was not allowed to exceed a certain speed. On my last pass I was cleared to go over 200mph. By this time it was really freaking hot again and the wind shifted into a strong head wind. A lot of racers had already decided to leave. I was the last motorcycle to run. There were dirt devils spinning all around the course. Some were huge and sent spectators running to secure their tents and awnings. This made for a very exciting and kind of scary final ride. I felt like a bobble-head bouncing down a gravel road. I definitely need to gain some more neck and arm strength before Bonneville in August. I was held up at the starting line for about 15 minutes until the dust died down enough to where you could see the cones that lined the course again. My final pass was clocked at 200.451mph. Wee-Hoo! What a FANTASTIC weekend, I accomplished 2 out of 3 goals and we had a fun/safe time.
This was the best day I have had in a long time. I will definitely be back! We were very fortunate to have Jason McVicars as a mentor and show us the ropes. The unknown of what to do next would have been really stressful and wasted precious time. Thanks to Jason, I saved myself from a couple of days of rookie runs at Bonneville. I also want to thank some of the SCTA staff. Dan Warner, Jim Jensen and a few others helped me speed through my licensing runs.
Scott
Fun weekend, valuable lessons learned (like in 114° heat, don't sit on
the porta potty seat, even with toilet paper down!) my expectations
were far exceeded and I can't wait for Bonneville next month!
More later ~ Jana
My Last pass of the day
http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y44/smcleod007/Land%20Speed%20Racing/El%20Mirage-My%20first%20time/?action=view¤t=Running-Naked-at-200MPH.flv
