Bill raced the Screwball at El Mirage in October, but the race report he sent me got lost in cyberspace.. Here it is, results from his meet last month.
It was a cool day unlike most of the days at El Mirage. The wind was from the south west. A touch of tail wind is always welcome. At the start it was a cross/tail wind at about 45 deg. About 3/4 of a mile out it turned to a cross wind. It caused a few delays and one lakester to crash severely. Fortunately the driver escaped with some broken ribs and a collapsed lung. He was airlifted to a nearby hospital and is making a full recovery.
The lakebed was amazing! For the past five years or so it has been absolute crap. Like running on potato chips and it would deteriorate quickly. The small amount of rain we got in Sept. seemed to have done wonders for the surface. I was running on Len Jones' 650 SC/PG record of 120.105 mph. I was hoping for 120-122. I dropped the gearing lightly as El Mirage is 1.3 miles compared to Bonneville's 2 or 3 miles. I also leaned it a tad. I was still nervous about the cylinder wall thickness after boring it way out. But it ran great at Bonneville.
The sidecar ran amazing and smooth. Through the lights, slow, turn out and stop. The roving patrol came over to make sure everything was OK and asked how the lakebed was. I told him and asked how I ran. He radioed the tower and I nearly fell over when the voice on the radio said 130.224 mph!!!
This weekend is the final meet of the year. I've made a few changes. I had to fit a new rear tire because I went over 130. The tire was H rated so I had to change to V rated. The new tire is about 1"- 1-1/4" taller and the circumference is 1" more that what was on there. I've made some gearing changes to compensate and l leaned it a tad more. Fingers crossed.
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