Ed Mabry, Jon Minonno and David (Packmule) Wade
Ed Mabry, Jon Minonno and David (Packmule) Wade
This year the North Texas Norton Owners Association and Fort Worth's own Tucker Rocky/ Tsubaki Chain supported Team Triumph Texas (TTT) took only the dual engine bike (No. 601) to Bonneville to concentrate on bumping up it's own records.
NTNOA's President Dean Baker after attaching the NTNOA logo to 601.For those new to TTT, the owner/builder is Ed Mabry, retired Bell Helicopter engineer and long time race car and race bike builder. The rider is Jon Minonno, R&D/Dyno guy at D&D Exhaust and former motorcycle multi-time road racing and drag racing national champion. The rest of the crew is David Wade, Crewchief and Anita Minonno, Jon's wife and computer/operations whiz.
No. 601 runs two turbocharged, fuel burning, "old" Triumph Trident push-rod, 2-valve engines. They make ~450 horsepower and the partially streamlined bike weighs 1,000 lbs. Weight is not a factor in Land Speed Racing (it is usually a plus) and this is the first flat-bottom bike to run at Bonneville.
This bike is also the fastest open-wheel motorcycle in the world and in history. It holds various class records as high as 238MPH and has exceeded 260MPH. The theoretical top speed is ~275MPH, given the bike's power and aerodynamics.
As is usual for TTT, their meet got off to a slow start. After arriving at Wendover, Utah on Thursday and completing Tech inspection on Friday, racing commenced on Saturday.
Ed said they made one run Saturday morning but the turbo boost never did come up. They figure they hurt the turbo on the dyno at D&D before they left. They fixed the problem and got back in line and waited all afternoon at the head of the line for the wind to die down but it never did...racing at Bonneville is like the Army - a LOT of "hurry up and wait".
They were scheduled to be first out Sunday morning. Our communications are such that we have a one to two-day delay in getting updates, so be patient...and keep your fingers crossed.
The picture from Bonneville is courtesy of Dan Peirce and his brother...it is NOT the TTT bike. It IS a wicked-fast Hayabusa that has run over 240MPH! It is way non-stock but is docile enough to ride on the street!
By the way, Larry Coleman of K&N who most of us know, is running his new turbocharged Hayabusa powered SIDE CAR rig, hoping for ~180MPH. Last year it spit him off at about 30MPH right at the starting line!
Hope it goes better this year.
More tomorrow,
Dave Howe
(for) TTT
Just another "Bonneville Day"!!
Monday (8/18) report. After repairing the fried turbo, they made a run in the morning still short on power in 4th gear so Jon turned out and came back to the pits. All of the gauges were showing the proper data but no power??? Attempted to check the Data Acquisition System, guess what,it didn't work for the first time ever! Murphy must have gone with them. Matter of fact, it is rumored that Murphy lives in Wendover!
Ed turned up the boost and they got back in line.
Next run!! Wouldn't shift!!!! Back to the pits, worked on clutch and then back in line. Then the course was shut down due to a motorcycle streamliner crash (they do that kind of a lot). Will try to have a follow up on this.
Stay tuned for the Tuesday report.
Cross fingers & toes.
No bike pics today but here are a couple of cool cars.
Dave Howe
(for) TTTTuesday (8/19) Report:
Good News/Bad News...could have been a little better, could have been a LOT worse!
Good News first: Jon clocked 233MPH in the first quarter mile between the 1 and 2 mile markers and averaged 240 between the 2 and 3 mile marker; the fastest time ever for that part of the course, even for previous years' runs of over 250 and 260. Momentum is very important in this kind of racing and this had set the stage for that elusive "Big Number" in the last mile when the boost, horsepower and SPEED really come up.
End of Good News...except that Jon is O.K.
The Bad News: Somewhere in the 2 - 3 "middle" mile the breather hoses either melted or blew off covering everything in an oil/methanol mixture resulting in a fire. Jon got it shut down OK but got really hot through his leathers, maybe some minor burns. Knowing Jon, I imagine he also memorized the 9 instrument readings while dealing with the fire, like he did the time the rear tire lost its tread at 235! The fire burnt also other hoses and wiring so it's back-on-the-trailer-and-head-for-Fort Worth time.
Thank God Jon is OK. No word on damage to No. 601 but anything that's broken can be fixed.
Disappointing? Sure. Discouraging? Absolutely not. There WILL be next year. If Land Speed Racing was as easy as it looks, everybody would be doing it.
And like Ed says: "Racing at Bonneville is an humbling experience!"
Dave Howe
(For) TTTMabry Race Summary for 2003
Long Course Run - Sunday (8/17)
Num Engine Body Entry Name
1/4 Mile1 Mile2 Mile3 Exit Comments
601B 3000CC APS-PBF Mabry Racing
137.93 109.18 0.00 0.00 0.00 Turn Out
Long Course Run - Monday (8/18)
601B 3000CC APS-PBF Mabry Racing
202.834 195.655 158.430 0.000 0.000
601B 3000CC APS-PBF Mabry Racing
0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 Turn Out
Long Course Run - Tuesday (8/19)
601B 3000CC APS-PBF Mabry Racing 212.087 183.690 0.000 0.000 0.000 601B 3000CC APS-PBF Mabry Racing 233.556 240.594 0.000 0.000 0.000 fire - middle mile
