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Bonneville Land Speed Record Update #8
Today started out on a somber note. The bad accident that ended the day yesterday resulted in the death of the driver, 47 year old Cliff Gullet. I had just visited his pit to look at his streamliner. His effort was a family affair and I was very impressed with their streamliner. We used footage of it in the opening of our update this morning as a tribute to him.
Obviously this was the conversation around the salt flats for much of the day. The conclusion reached seemed to be that no one is in denial of the danger associated with this sport, but somehow the risk gives meaning to life. I doubt anyone worries about the danger ..... we accept it and if it happens then that's the way it is. At least we exit doing something we enjoy.
So racing continued and yet no one will forget.
Our race day began by discovering the efforts of our major competitor. “She” happens to be a beautiful young lady on a serious Honda. She has already gone 213 mph (342 kph) on a motorcycle at Bonneville and last year suffered a very serious crash. But she's back and boy do we respect her! This morning she ran one way within 2 mph of our one-way speed, but her return run was slowed by headwinds. But she did come within 3mph or our present record.
We got Rosey on the bike to counter as this is much like a sailboat race in terms of strategy. If your major competitor goes out to run then you go with them to “cover” them. This is the only way to know what we have under the same conditions. Rosey went one way at 193.668 mph (311 kph), but on the return he hit major cross winds that almost sent him off course. His return speed was 188 mph (302 kph).
We had planned to run once again today, but due to high winds the race day was canceled. It was just too dangerous to run with such cross winds
We got the feed back we wanted on our gear change. It worked. We had the power to reach 13,000 rpm continuous in 6th gear and now we'll make two major changes in the morning and go for it. We really think we have a 200mph bike.
We'll have a new video tomorrow morning and the press is already talking about our effort. As we have the links sent to us we'll pass them on to you.
Click to read
Gary
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