El Mirage dry lake

[Hoofhearted]

We had a great time at the meet. Dave Anderson, a BSA Gold Star owner, flew in from North Carolina to ride the Norton. This all came from a chat at Bonneville last year. After his rookie orientation we stuck him on the bike and sent hm on his first run. This photo was taken Sunday morning after his run. It was his fastet run of the weekend. 122.076 mph. The weather was hot, hot, hot. 106 on Saturday and a much cooler 102 on Sunday. Dave ran at 8:32 Sunday Morning and the time slip showed the temp, at 85.7 deg. I'll post some more photos after this,

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The bruiser. A twin Harley monster. Ran 197+ on Sunday. It has run over 220 at Bonneville.

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And the other end of the scale. Scott Baxter's gorgeous little '47 350 BSA. He's finally starting to get it sorted. He ran a solid 82 mph.

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And the weird. A knuck bobber. Japanese guy. Can't remember his name and if I did I probably couldn't pronounce it. Ran 95 mph.

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[ÜberDoober]

Oh very cool! That's some bodywork on "the bruiser", eh?

It got real hot real fast here too. It was 110 yesterday and the same is expected for today. Kinda takes the wind right out of your sails.

So it seems there is a little of everything running there at El Mirage and it must be a hella nightmare to categorize it all. What kind of class structure is there and what class does your bike run in?

How does your 122.076 compare to past times? I'd imagine cooler temps would help significantly?

Thanks for sharing. As always, your stuff is top notch! :)

[Hoofhearted]

The SCTA in one of its rare smart moves created a pushrod class. When the japs were going too fast the Harley guys pitched for a class of their own. So the SCTA came up with pushrods as an engine definition. It has been a great set up. You can have an older bike and be competitive. The Norton runs as a 500cc partial streamlining pushrod gas. The 122 was pretty good for Dave. It was his first time on the bike and couldn't launch it for nuts. The fastest I've been able to get it to is 129.917. Heres a photo of Dave Anderson, Mrs. Hoof, and Scott Baxter, the 350 BSA rider. Scott has battled that BSA for years. Anyone else would be using it for a boat ancor. But Scott always had a smile. We got together and three heads being better than one got a big improvement to 82 mph. That may not sound much but believe me compared to the frustrations he's endured it was like breaking the sound barrier.

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[ÜberDoober]

Very informative! It looks like a good overall time except for standing around in the windy hot desert. I have a friend in Long Beach (ahem, that is actually registered here but can't seem to find the post button) that used to take his land sailer out there in days gone by.

. The fastest I've been able to get it to is 129.917.

So close to breaking into the 130's! That would drive me nuts! :ack2: It's still all very cool to take a 90 year old bike that you've owned since you were in diapers out and run the bejesus out of it. :cheers2:

[Hoofhearted]

If you ever wondered what Santa Claus did in the off season now you know! He packs sardines!!
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[ÜberDoober]

Ho Ho Ho!

Cool pic! That guy that's stuffed in there looks like he can hardly see! :)

[Hoofhearted]

Sometimes its best not to see! Santa Claus (aka Fritz Kott, San Diego Roadsters, nicest guy you would ever meet, multiple record holder) was riding this blown '56 Triumph. Have to go see how fast he went but I'm guessing it was in the 110 range.

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