October 03, 2007

Team D&D Comes Back From Bonneville Frustrated

Team D&D Performance Enterprises came to the BUB International Motorcycle Speed Trials in September of 2007 with great hopes of taking a national AMA and World FIM record on their V-Bike and Boarzilla race bikes.

The team tried valiantly to produce records but was not able to overcome the unpredictable wet weather conditions or operational challenges of the meet.

D&D’s Custom Chrome V-Bike entry had gone through significant testing before heading out to Bonneville. Successful runs at the Texas Mile in Goliad, TX suggested that both bikes were on pace for 2007. The V-Bike ran over 150 mph and Boarzilla over 180 mph.

Team D&D slightly modified the Custom Chrome powerplant and upped the performance to 185 HP on the V-Bike. It runs alcohol with a splash of nitro methane. The Team needed to make a number of practice runs in order to fine tune their setup. The goal was to break the 158 mile barrier and take the record away from the Fat Book Flyer.

Tough Week on the Salt
Rain, wind and organizational delays had the boys waiting in line for hours. Bob Dowdy, VP of Operations, had this to say,

I waited in the hot sun for over 42 hours to run. It was frustrating but that is racing in Bonneville. Sometimes you eat Bear and sometimes the Bear eats you; we came back with some of our backside missing.

Thursday was the last day and the meet closed at noon. The team was up early and in line. They got a run in early and found that the high elevation was preventing them from getting all the power down as the bike was turning only at 5,000 rpm. They got back in line and thrashed to modify the gearing in order to run the bike to 6,800 rpm. Time ran out before they could stage and make their record run.

Running 153MPH Sideways
They were able to run on the non-qualifying Run Whatcha Brung Course that was rough and less groomed.

The V-Bike is a hard tail and requires a smooth surface in order to extract all the performance from the motorbike. They got down the track at 153 mph and sideways before rider Johnny Minonno shut it off.

We had the motorbike, rider and setup to put the smackdown on the Flat Book Flyer and take the record home to Texas for Custom Chrome. We just ran out of time but we will be back next year.
- Dave Rash, The Pope of Pipe.

Next year then, just wait till next year!

October 3, 2007 10:51 AM | send page