Day 2 of BUB Speed Trials is Over

The sun has set on the second day of the Bub Speed Trials at Bonneville. This was the first day that any serious runs were made. However the conditions were still a bit wet for any serious running by the big streamliners, and the wind came up late in the day.

Max Lamky did run his twin Vincent powered supercharged liner. He had a massive failure of the chain that links the two engines together. The damage was extensive to the cases…….it sure looks like Max and his great crew is out for the week. Too bad, they are a terrific group of guys who are amazingly dedicated.

So what is happening in the arena of the world’s fastest streamliners? Here is a rundown of what has happened so far and what the top 3 liners are up to.

Starting with Mike Akatiff, he says that he is at Bonneville this week just to display his bike and will do his serious running later in September in the Mike Cook “Private Meet”. This is the same event he set the world record last year. I am not sure if Mike has even entered the Bub event……but I bet he has. I just can’t imagine that Mike would not run if he had to defend the record……so if the salt is good and Denis or Sam set a fast time…….well Mike may just drop that thing off the trailer and have a good go at it. The whole team is there…..Rocky is there, and the Ack Attack is ready to go. Mike may not wait for the end of September!

Denis was at the end of the international course at mid afternoon waiting for the wind to die down. The team had some trouble getting “7” up and running, but they were ready to go as soon as the winds died down. That did not happen today. In the end the wind went from 6-7 MPH to over 20 at the end of the day. By 4:00PM the International course was shut down for the day because of the wind.

I am sure Denis wants to take the record back from Mike at his Bub event. Denis has invested a lot on money in new tires that were restricting him to no more than 350 MPH. In 2006 when he set the record his rear tire was blistering. He has tested the new tires on a testing machine at 450 MPH. Denis has a lot of confidence in his new rubber and he wants to push that record way over 360 MPH.

Denis is ready. He has a great rider in Chris Carr, and a very capable machine with great new rubber on it. Denis will run as soon as the salt is good and the wind is down. Look for him to be very ready tomorrow [Tuesday AM]. He may even do an early run when the wind is down and the salt in good shape.

Sam Wheeler is always someone to be reckoned with. His EZ Hook streamliner has shown time and again that it has everything to deliver a record. Sam had some mechanical problems last year with a sheared jackshaft. All that has been corrected and the liner completely gone through in Sam’s methodical and precise way. This year he has added a new data acquisition system that will give him more accurate data with a faster sampling rate from more sources than in the past. He spent some time sorting it all out today on the salt.

Sam is running his solid aluminum front wheel again this year. He just does not have a source of a good tire that will fit his ‘liner. He has done a bit of work on his front suspension with the help of suspension expert Bruce Burness. Sam is hopeful that the changes will make a big difference.

Sam and crew left the salt late tonight and are planning an early AM run. If the salt is good and the wind is down it will be interesting to see if Sam and Denis go head to head.

If Sam does get a good run, we are also keeping our fingers crossed that our on-board camera system works well. IGNITON3 has been working with nNovia and Data Video on a new solid state video recorder that is teamed up with a great wide angle camera head. Sam has used the system the last couple of years. Mike is also using one of these systems and last year got some great on-board footage when they set the record. Good cockpit video and data acquisition are very important to these runs. So much happens in such a short time that the driver has only a slice of the reality. I know as a fact that when Sam’s front tire let go at 355 MPH in 2006 he learned an awful lot from analyzing the video of the run. By slowing the video and watching it repeatedly he could break down what really happened.

Let’s hope for good salt tomorrow. It could be history making day!