After waiting in line ALL DAY yesterday, we decided it would be better to let a few people pass late in the day to ensure we would have cooler conditions today for the air-cooled motor, and Smitty. We left the trailer in line overnight and returned the next morning.
We left our hotel at 4:15 AM in Wells, NV to arrive at the Bonneville Salt Flats by 6:30 AM in Wendover, UT. We were about 10 vehicles back from the starting line!
We fueled up The Red Baron with C-123 gasoline rather than the oxygenated gas that didn’t do well during the rookie run. We had tuned The Red Baron carburetor using this gasoline and it has performed well every since. We had optimized our air-fuel ratio to 10.5:1 by changing the carburetor needle size, testing with hot laps at the 2015 Mojave Mile event.
The Red Baron started beautifully using the starting motor, and a crowd gathered as it warmed up and the supercharger rolled smoothly, and loudly!
Just after 10:00 AM, Smitty took off from the right lane at the starting line, and began to accelerate and move across to the left side — taking his time to avoid major ruts. The shift to second gear took a few moments because salt build-up on Smitty’s boot and the left peg was making his foot slide around.
Smitty completed the first mile around 100 MPH, and was accelerating in 6th gear through the flying-mile. At the 2-mile marker, he was going 117 MPH, producing a flying-mile average speed of 111 MPH. This qualified for the record!
We took The Red Baron to impound for an initial technical inspection and to be kept there overnight. We drained the fuel from the system and recharged the battery to prepare. Tomorrow we will return bright and early to refuel the motorcycle and complete a second run. The flying-mile speeds will be averaged from today’s run and tomorrow’s run, which together needs to beat 70.5 MPH to make the new record official.
Finally a good day!!!!!!