Back to Bolivia 2023

[trimmers]

Final Bolivia Report: Everything is unofficial and/or provisional.  Today wasn't really much better than yesterday, but a couple of records were set.

Mike Garcia set a record around 265MPH on his Honda, after several unsuccessful previous attempts.

Al Lamb made 2 or 3 runs on his Honda but continued to have problems.  I think his best was around 260 on a 297 record.

ACK Attack continued to have problems, but did make one run at 303 in the mile, about 75 off their own record.

Jamie Williams, who blew the engine in his snowmobile previously, put a rod through the side of the block in his A-II-7 streamliner.

Jamie had a little better luck with his bone stock MTT Turbine Super Bike, running on an open record.  His new record was a bit over 100MPH, as it had the wrong gearing.  They changed the rear sprocket and made one last, single pass as time expired, running 179 in the mile, with a 189 exit speed.

Heading home tomorrow, but don't arrive until Thursday.

Jeff - longing for Boise

[Paulin adelaide]

One major thing i noticed while reading FIA documents for our DLRA  event was turn around times for reruns .
Motorcycle 2 hrs    Cars 1 hour .
Having crewed on Jim Knapps liner and put it on and off the transporter and undo a swag of dues fasteners and then put them back in i think this rule is virtually impossiible  .
I think the FIM should look at this rule . and revise it due to senseibility

[trimmers]

Actually, the FIM (motorcycles) rule allows 2 hours.  It's the FIA (automobiles) with the 1-hour turn-around time limit. I agree that the FIA should also allow 2 hours.
Jeff from Boise

[PorkPie]

About turn around...

yes, 2 hours for FIM and 1 hour for FIA......up to 1935 the FIA (now) had only 30 minutes...they changed it to 1 hour during the attempts of Malcolm Campbell at Bonneivlle, when he run at the salt instead on sand at Daytona Beach the tire had to be changed after every run...so the FIa done a quick reaction on the situation and stayed with it.

Tom Burkland had a hard time to stay inside the 1 hour rule when he run at the Shootout and start a talk with the FIA to change it to 2 hours....without a result....

The FIA has to understand that just for the safety it is necessary with the today more complexed racer to give the teams more time....

unfortunately the FIA is here very slow to make changes....how long it needs to get off the 1 percent rule....how long it needs that the wheel driven racers got the title as World Record back....

The FIA tries to protect himself with the comment....this wouldn't be fair to the teams which set the records before under the 1 hour rule.....in other words....they found an argument to do nothing

...instead of that they changing the records classes in 2014 from 11 displacements to 13....and also the numbers on weight classes for electric and turbine....

with the result, that to today the displacements 9-12 are missing in the FIA record list as they still couldn't find the correct record holder due to missing papers about the engine sizes....

next year we have the 10th anniversary for that change....


it's on all serious racer who likes to go FIA to go on the FIA for a change - of fairness between FIM and FIA - and of, much more important, safety in record breaking....

go together with Tom Burkland and support him and he will support you

[sabat]

Final Bolivia Report: Everything is unofficial and/or provisional.  Today wasn't really much better than yesterday, but a couple of records were set.

Mike Garcia set a record around 265MPH on his Honda, after several unsuccessful previous attempts.

Al Lamb made 2 or 3 runs on his Honda but continued to have problems.  I think his best was around 260 on a 297 record.

ACK Attack continued to have problems, but did make one run at 303 in the mile, about 75 off their own record.

Jamie Williams, who blew the engine in his snowmobile previously, put a rod through the side of the block in his A-II-7 streamliner.

Jamie had a little better luck with his bone stock MTT Turbine Super Bike, running on an open record.  His new record was a bit over 100MPH, as it had the wrong gearing.  They changed the rear sprocket and made one last, single pass as time expired, running 179 in the mile, with a 189 exit speed.

Heading home tomorrow, but don't arrive until Thursday.

Jeff - longing for Boise

Thanks again for the detailed reporting, it is truly appreciated.  Did Scott Horner make any passes on his naked turbo Hayabusa?

Dean

[trimmers]

Unfortunately, Scott neve got his bike ready, so he didn't make any runs.

We've got a "luxury bus" coming to pick us (the ones who aren't flying out of Uyuni) at 1300EDT today for the 300-mile road trip to La Paz.
Jeff

[kiwi belly tank]

Changing FIA records to a 2hr would be a game changer but that "changes the game" so the record book would need to show the difference. We ran over the 1hr time limit a few times on otherwise good runs & were held back from running due to unclear course as have many others over the years.
There needs to be a distinction between the old rules & the new rules if there is to be a change. SCTA failed to do the right thing when they changed the return runs.
  Sid.

[PorkPie]

Sure, this would be a game changer....
and yes, it had to be done the way, that it's easy to see...that was the record under 1 hour rule...

The FIM shows how you could do it....in 1979 they freezed the records to get out of the mess....

Freeze the FIA records....first list shows the record before the freeze

the new, second list, shows the record under the 2 hours rule....
at the beginning there will be a lot of gap's which would not mean that this is a open record....only....no one done an attempt under 2 hour rule and set a record....

FIA had the chance to do that, when they done in 2014 this radical change in classes.....

the side effect would have been that they had not to figure out who is now the record holder....

if someone went out for an attempt...he would have run against the record which match to his engine size.....so easy.....


now we have still a 1 hour turn around and a big mess in the record list.....

Changing FIA records to a 2hr would be a game changer but that "changes the game" so the record book would need to show the difference. We ran over the 1hr time limit a few times on otherwise good runs & were held back from running due to unclear course as have many others over the years.
There needs to be a distinction between the old rules & the new rules if there is to be a change. SCTA failed to do the right thing when they changed the return runs.
  Sid.

[Paulin adelaide]

Whether you need to freeze the record books for a change to a 2 hr turnaround is irrevalant .
The timed mile or timed kilometer , will still be the Same

[kiwi belly tank]

Whether you need to freeze the record books for a change to a 2 hr turnaround is irrevalant .
The timed mile or timed kilometer , will still be the Same

It's hardly irrelevant mate when you've missed the turn around window by a few seconds & you have to do it all over again! Putting two runs together back to back is tough to do, even Thrust SSC missed the 1hr window by a few seconds & had to do it all again. You could have lunch in that extra hour but if it is changed it needs to be noted.
  Sid.

[PorkPie]

you right,

13th October 1997, Andy with the SSC had a issue with the parachute on his first run....and he was less than a minute too late out of the measured mile on his return run....

both was runs faster than the speed of sound....

so, Andy has to do it again on the 15th October.....

breaking the sound barrier is a big risk...to make it again just for that tough rule....why....

Whether you need to freeze the record books for a change to a 2 hr turnaround is irrevalant .
The timed mile or timed kilometer , will still be the Same

It's hardly irrelevant mate when you've missed the turn around window by a few seconds & you have to do it all over again! Putting two runs together back to back is tough to do, even Thrust SSC missed the 1hr window by a few seconds & had to do it all again. You could have lunch in that extra hour but if it is changed it needs to be noted.
  Sid.

[Seldom Seen Slim]

Thomas, have you got any photos of the turntable that the Burklands used at one of the early the Shootouts?  I don't - but remember how Tom would coast into the pits after his down run, and aim the car up a little incline and then come to a stop on the raised surface.  The floor was a turntable (like a railroad roundhouse) with room enough along the sides for crew members to service it while at the same time the whole shebang was rotated 180 degrees - - and now pointing in the correct direction for the return run.  No precious time used to turn the car!

All to try to beat the 1 hour clock.  And George Poteet had the chute designed to allow him enough speed to coast into his pit and come to a stop with minimum braking or chasing with the truck.

No doubt other racers have worked to save time, too.

[TrickyDicky]

Report from Jean Turner, published on the FIM web site.

https://www.fim-moto.com/en/news/news-detail/article/bolivia-speed-trials-final-day-report

Link to 78 photos:

https://fim-pictures.com/galleries/1389/2023-bolivia-speed-trialsbol

        

[TrickyDicky]

I have heard from that runs at the WF 2020...unfortunately, the only pdf which the SCTA provide about the WF 2020 is the one with the records....but not one page about the runs....

so, I couldn't confirm any speed of 300+ mph......

wished I could have the pdf of all the WF 2020 runs....did you got a so pdf....would be great to get them for my archive

About Jim,

...

in the other hand, Jim is still working on to get the streamliner up to speed...did he got a 300+ mph time slip...I can't remember...and when....only in the very low 300....

...

Highest speed so far is 332.871 mph at 2020 World Finals (I think ... tell me if I'm wrong  ).  Several other runs at 300+.

A big jump to 415+ mph.

I found the 2020 WF results (see attachments).

Must have been copied from the SCTA web site, so not sure why they would have subsequently removed them.

[TrickyDicky]

I messed up the attachments 

Second attempt.