September 19, 2007
Naked 200 MPH Club
Scott McLeod is the new top speed record holder and newest member of the Bonneville "Naked" 200 mph club.
The record of 215.051 mph averaged speed, was set on Scott's Suzuki Hayabusa in the (M-BG 1350cc) class. The "naked" class name comes from the lack of any fairings in front of the rider or any sort of streamlining - no protection from the wind. Scott gained entry into the coveted Bonneville naked 200 mph club as member number 19, the 19th person in the history of Bonneville land speed racing to break a record over 200 mph on a motorcycle with no fairings.
Read More of Scott's story and how he used his MXL to break records...
As told by Scott:
[I'm a] Local contractor from Seattle whose just gotten into drag racing and land speed racing.
Bought a 2005 Suzuki Hayabusa to turbo charge for my new street bike
Met the local drag strip champion in 2006 and was talked into bringing my bike to the drag strip to see what it could do. After my first pass I was totally hooked. Wide open throttle with no cross traffic to worry about was so cool. After a few passes at the local drag strips I was required to get my NHRA drag racing license before I could go any quicker.
After racing on the weekends for two months, my No. 3 cylinder leaned out and melted under 10 pounds a boost. There was a lot of speculation of what might have caused it but nothing was ever conclusive. Not knowing why the engine failed drove me nuts. At this point, since I was running the engine hard, I decided it was time to buy a data logger. I rebuilt the engine with heavy duty parts and installed a data logger that recorded air fuel ratio, boost levels and RPM. This allowed me to do some minor tuning and keep the air fuel ratio safe. It grabbed its info from the bikes secondary fuel controller. The logger was adequate for basic performance but I soon realized at the beginning of the 2007 drag racing season I needed more information than it could supply. I was winning races, but I was still struggling to get the bike to make consistent passes. This year I was also planning on taking the bike to the Bonneville salt flats to see how fast I could go.
I contacted most of the major data logger manufacturers and inquired about their sampling rates and the number of channels their models offered. After searching for a few months I narrowed down my choices to the AiM Sports data loggers and accessories. The AiM Sports MXL / EVO series of data logger's was the best bang for the buck out there for my applications. Both units would handle all the new sensors I wanted to install and had enough memory to record a week's worth of racing. The only dilemma I was having now was, should I buy the EVO or the MXL PRO? The EVO was a small black box recorder that would let me keep my stock gauge cluster. The the MXL pro is a cool LCD display that can be programmed to show any of its installed sensors I want to monitor. I made cutouts of all the external gauges I wanted to monitor while using my stock instrument panel and taped them around the stock gauge cluster. As it turns out I didn't have enough room for all the extra gauges. The MXL pro is now the clear choice. I ordered and installed the MXL pro and sensors a week before I departed for speed week 2007 at the Bonneville salt flats. After I made my rookie runs I turned up the power to see what the bike could do. At mile 3 the rear wheel sensor said I was doing 269 mph and the GPS showed only 205 mph. Managing traction is the key to going fast for a motorcycle on the salt flats. As I analyzed my wheel spin, the next a few passes got progressively faster. At speeds over 200 mph the wind shear on my unfaired bike was so strong that it ripped off the air filter that clamps to the intake of the turbocharger three times. By Thursday I had upped the current record to 215.051 mph and was indoctrinated into the prestigious Bonneville 200 mph club. I had just accomplished a lifelong dream. In my opinion the MXL pro just paid for itself. During my runs I found out that the No. 1 and No. 3 cylinder's start to lean out after 20 pounds of boost even though my air fuel mixture looks fine. This will help me re-tune for next year's speed week where I will run with the fairings on.
As told by Scott Guthrie from Landracing.com:
In the next morning’s runs, Horner couldn’t hold his bike on course in the high winds,
and Mc Leod’s name doesn’t appear in the results for a record return attempt.
(Somewhere in here, Mc Leod suffered a “paperwork malfunction,” and his over
200 MPH record was disallowed by the SCTA / BNI.)
Horner was still safe for the moment.
Horner then grabbed the record first, on Wednesday, at 209.793 MPH.
Horner received the coveted “Red Hat” from the Bonneville 200 MPH Club,
and was introduced to the hundreds of people attending the 200 Club
banquet that evening.
Mc Leod wasn’t done yet.
On Thursday, with time running out for the week that started on Saturday,
Mc Leod responded with an exit speed of 219.057 MPH, and snagged the
record from Horner by about 6 MPH, setting Horner’s 209.793 MPH mark up to 215.051 MPH.
That took Horner’s name out of the record book after only 24 hours.
Horner wasn’t out of options either, and changed classes to challenge a
record set in the 2006 Speed Week by Club Member Scott Guthrie, in
class M / BF-1350. Horner upped Guthrie’s record to 205.589 MPH to
regain a place in the record book on the last day of the meet.
Mc Leod had recorded a 200.451 MPH “naked” at El Mirage the month before.
Not enough for Club membership against a record of 202.107 MPH, but still plenty fast.
Think next year is going to be fun?
SCOTT HORNER and SCOTT Mc LEOD announced early at Speed Week 2007
that there was going to be a real battle in “naked” class M/BG-1350.
Both men were running fast against a record set in 2003 with bike
now owned by Member Scott Guthrie.
Posted by Mike Jaynes at 01:21 AM
October 30, 2006
Nicky Hayden
2006 MotoGP World Champion!
How cool is that?
Posted by MyChron Mike at 05:08 PM | Comments (0)
October 19, 2006
They Say A Picture Is Worth A 1000 Words
What was Dani Pedrosa thinking on lap 2 in Estoril when he took the MotoGP points leader and his HRC teammate Nicky Hayden out of the race and the points lead with an out of control attempted pass? I think his ego is so huge that he couldnt bear the thought of Nicky possibly winning the MotoGP world championship and being the first to unseat Valentino Rossi in 5 years. I believe that he would rather have Rossi win again and then take his best shot next year in 2007 and he did his best to insure that scenario. I would bet that Rossi and Yamaha have had a few good laughs at the expense of HRC and Pedrosa in days since.
Nicky still has a slim chance at the title but it could require some help from Pedrosa but based on past experience that doesnt seem too likely.
UPDATE
Alberto Pig, Dani Pedrosa's manager and mentor now blames Nicky for the crash which took both Repsol riders out of the race. He claims Nicky braked early which forced Pedrosa to crash taking Hayden down in the process. This is after Pedrosa admitted in an HRC press release that he made a grave error in judgement. Again as is so common in todays world no one can assume responsibility for their mistakes. Maybe Pig is planning a career in politics?
Posted by MyChron Mike at 07:16 PM | Comments (2)
October 03, 2006
Busa Madness
Check out this wild ride from McCoy Motorsports as featured on the Metric TV Sportbike Build off. The custom Hayabusa bike features a specially prepped MXL digital dash with translucent red/maroon powder coating. Neel and Joel from Apex Speed handled the wiring and install on this one of a kind beauty.
Apex Speed Technology and McCoy Motorsports have teamed together again to build the most radical custom Suzuki ever imagined. McCoy Motorsports “Turbo Pheonix”, featuring a custom AIM MXL Strada Dash, has been selected as finalist in “Metric TV” biker buildoff.
It will also be on the cover of next month’s Super Streetbike magazine. Aim Sports worked with Apex to provide an MXL Pista in a custom, red-anodized case to match the rest of the bike’s color scheme. The stock Suzuki Hayabusa harness was modified to accept the AIM dash, utilizing all the stock sensors including speed, water temperature, RPM, and boost. Apex Speed Technology also provide the BPD ECU and performed all the fuel injection tuning in one plug & play package.
http://www.tobefast.com/fast_mcbusa.htm
Posted by MyChron Mike at 07:07 PM | Comments (0)