Bonneville '72
BONNEVILLE '72
Harley's 265 Mph Record Stands As A 270 Mph Crash Side-lines The Honda Hawk For Yet Another Year
Bruce Flanders
THE 24th ANNUAL Bonneville Speed Week is now past history. The motorcycle division had the largest entry, yet there were fewer records set this year than last, even though the salt was in terrific condition and the weather was admirable.
Governor Calvin Rampton made a helicopter visit to his state’s famous salt flats, showing great interest in Otto Crocker’s timing equipment and the condition of the salt, which is maintained by the State of Utah Highway Department.
Governor Rampton is apparently a farsighted politician, because it has been he, along with countless others, who has spearheaded the drive which has culminated in the adoption of the salt flats as a state park. This now ends the saga of the disappearing salt, which has been plaguing racers and naturalists.
An interesting sidelight to the nowcontrolled area of Bonneville is that it comes under the watchful eye of the Bureau of Land Management. Two rangers from the BLM were present on the salt during the entire speedweek. At the drivers’ meeting, which was on the very first Sunday, they passed along the information that because the salt flats were no longer “open” land they had to be considered a controlled area, and the letter of the law read that an unposted speed limit of 60 mph would be enforced anywhere except on the actual timing lane.
The law also required that motorcyclists wear a helmet and have a license, for themselves and their pit bikes. The rangers didn’t ticket anyone until Wednesday and even then they were only worried about the helmet part of the laws.
By week’s end the BLM guys were part of the scene and wore STP shirts as a portion of their uniform and were even seen helping one of the competitors bump off a particularly hard to start machine.
The factory showdown for the record never did materialize, even though some God-awful fast stuff was there. Three streamliners that were pre-entered
never even got to Utah. It takes longer than one thinks to actually get one of these beasts ready to run.
Vesco’s double-engined Yamaha 750 four-stroker complete with turbocharger still had lots of work left to be done on it when speedweek rolled around. Don, being the foxy competitor that he is, packed up all his other engine combinations and headed for Wendover, anyway.
Early in the week the Vesco crew concentrated its efforts on the 250cc international record. Playing poker close to the chest is one of Don’s trademarks and he wanted to see how the Honda and the Norton liners did, while keeping a wary eye on Wirges’ Kawasaki double.
Using straight pump gasoline, Don pushed the 250 record up to 172.455 on Thursday morning. After his engine displacement had been certified and the record OK’d he swapped to the double 350cc engines that gave him the record at 251 just before the Harley bumped it two years ago.
He was then plagued by fouled plugs while trying to put the first direction on the 265 record by H-D. This was the end of the Vesco effort, and Don went back to El Cajon to get ready for Talladega, hopefully to return later this year with the double four-strokes.
The Norton entry was considered the darkhorse from the beginning—a simple 750 engine, with a backup engine that was rumored to be a 900 waiting in the truck. A sanitary-looking shell and unknown horsepower potential made it the unknown quantity among unknown quantities.
To complicate the Norton picture even farther, there was a dispute over the ownership of the vehicle. This often happens with racing machinery that is owned by partners or corporations. The
Norton liner, owned by Wheeler or Moulders or both or neither, was nearly ready when it suddenly disappeared from town.
Bill Wirges Kawasaki 750 double had improved vastly in the last 12 months. Rider vision and safety were increased over last year and Bill himself has learned how to pilot one of these strange creatures.
Both the rider and the liner were going through the speed limit phases of checkout like a hot knife through butter, but when the 200 mph limit was reached problems halted the effort-one time it was fouled plugs, the next time it was some other little thing. The final straw was transmission failure after completing a 192 mph blast. The days simply ran out for Wirges’ crew.
The Honda crew worked feverishly all during the week. They came to the salt with the best possibilities of any liner—over 300 horsepower on alcohol, a new suspension system that allows the rear wheel to get a better hold of the salt, improved safety equipment, better rider visibility, and Jon McKibben, a rider with a great deal of experience with this bike and its peculiarities.
The Hawk did set a record, but it was during the speed limit phase of vehicle checkout. It went one direction at about 190 on a 200 limit and then came back with the throttle on, hard, through the eyes at over 270 mph, but then trouble set in. A couple of wiggles and McKibben was on his side, still traveling over 200 mph. Quick chute reaction by Jon saved the liner from all but minor damage.
The record will go into the books at 232.717, but the Hawk team was not yet done. It was still trying for that big record and had hopes of doing it as soon as the liner was repaired.
A slightly cobby looking Hawk came to the line near the end of the week to re-qualify against its own 232 record. Mechanically all was sound but the body still showed the scars of a veteran heavyweight. McKibben was still jovial, but onlookers detected notes of apprehension as the vehicle was readied for an all out pass.
“Pulled to life and running strong,” was the word on the observers’ intercom. Earlier reports said there was “zero wind conditions” along the course. A two-mile approach to the first time traps, which is a quarter of a mile, netted a 210.28, the next light beam to be broken was the first mile at 224.85. The second mile came up with a 252.27 and the final measured mile gave a 267.45 as the exit light was broken.
Then disaster struck as the vehicle did a couple of wiggles and “swooped” left. The Hawk fell on its left side and one of the two chutes come out almost immediately. Even the parachute couldn’t stop the liner from becoming airborne. It was flying 20 to 30 feet above the salt when the second chute blossomed. The two chutes combined to apply at least 5Gs de-celeration and when the liner touched down it did so in a nose-first attitude, thus ripping the nose and windshields and the batteries and scattering them like so much confetti. When the Hawk finally came to rest McKibben was visibly shaken but quite calm and only required a bandage on his left hand. The same thing cannot be said for the Hawk. It needs months of work before it will ever run again.
The Honda crew jokingly laid claim to another record after everyone had calmed down a little. So read this Evel and Super Joe: over 400 feet without the aid of a landing ramp, or even the aid of a takeoff ramp. You local dragstrip promotors can save your money, though. I don’t think that either Jon or Honda are looking for any bookings. Besides, they need seven miles to get up to speed.
The Hawk average of 232.717 was more than enough to qualify rider Jon McKibben for the famed 200 mph club. This makes him only the 12th motorcyclist to enter those hallowed halls.
Two other men came very close to getting into that famed club during the week. One was Bob George from Hawthorne, Calif. Bob rides a very sanitary dual-engined Harley that went one direction at 217 mph, but telltale aluminum bits on the spark plugs were an accurate indication that the rear engine would die on the return trip.
The other was Tom Elrod from Saugerties, N.Y. Tom also flogs a dual engine H-D, but this one was on gas and never actually ran at full tilt. While he was sorting out the engines, he did manage to post a very respectable average of 190.991.
An interesting story unfolded when a post entry was processed through the tech line early in the week. A prototype of the Bombardier line, called the Can Am, was unveiled. The fact that it was a water-cooled 125cc super-neat road racer surprised many onlookers.
Bob Barker from Valcourt, Quebec, pushed the little beauty into the record book with a 1 1 1.573 average on gas. It should be a marque to watch for if pre-production tells the tale.
Bill Vickery, Denver, Colo., showed the world what a good running Yamaha 250 road racer is worth on the salt. His bike, fresh from recent AMA road races, ran and set a very respectable 138.410 with the fairing mounted.
The first woman entrant in the history of speedweek, Joy Houston, nailed down a 350 gas class record at 109.154 to become the only feminine name in the record book.
BONNEVILLE RESULTS
