As this is being written, it’s very much the morning after the night before.
We have just arrived at our team member Bruce’s house in San Diego, after an extreme weekend at El Mirage dry lake bed.
What an amazing place!
Despite being organised and run brilliantly by the same people as Bonneville speed week (The wonderful volunteers of the SCTA), this event had a much more relaxed feel to it.
There are races on the lake bed every month, so the routines are well known by all of the regular competitors. Subsequently there is an awful lot of banter and heckling in a very good natured way. It’s great to see.
However we are getting ahead of ourselves, let’s start at the beginning.
On Tuesday last week, both Ians and crew chief Andy Best flew out to California. Primarily to solve the gremlins that had plagued the Triumph running at Bonneville and to prepare the car for next speed week. We had very little faith that the wonderful weather the lake bed had been enjoying would hold long enough for our visit.
To our pleasure and surprise the forecast was fantastic and we were blessed with clear blue skies and minimal winds. The temperature fluctuated from about 25 degrees during the day to 3 degrees at night.
This gave us limited time to carry out the work and prepare the vehicles for racing that weekend. With the usual enthusiasm associated with the team we all set to our assigned tasks and got the jobs completed.
The car simply needed some fettling to solve a couple of issues the tech inspectors had pointed out and to attempt to seal the doors. The surface at El Mirage is coated with a layer of very fine dust. For cars to fill up with this dust whilst running, to the point the driver can’t see is a regular complaint. For us this was a real concern as the door fit is really quite poor.
We had steeled ourselves for making the usual British mistake.
Most visitors to America from England, tend to make the error of looking at a map and thinking that a place is only down the road from another, only to discover that road is in fact hundreds of miles long.
So, it was wonderful to learn that El Mirage is only a 30 minute drive from Bruce’s workshop in the California mountains, conveniently where the car is being stored.
We left bright and early(ish) Friday morning to head to the lake bed and set up camp.
Tech inspection starts on Friday and we had the usual fun and games of fitting the floor once the car was off the trailer.
The car sailed through tech inspection for the first time ever! Again we have some minor adjustments to make for our next outing, but nothing to stop us running at the event.
Next morning was really cold as we assembled for the drivers meeting and rookie orientation.
Despite our experience at Bonneville we were still El Mirage rookies and we had to start from scratch. The differences between the two surfaces and procedures was quite marked so the orientation meeting was very informative.
Once all of the official hoops had been jumped through we lined up for our first run.
The licensing system at El Mirage is exactly the same as Bonneville
E speeds up to 125
D speeds between 125 and 149
C speeds between 150 and 174
B speeds between 175 and 199
A speeds between 200 and 249
AA speeds between 250 and 299
Unlimted speeds over 300
As rookies at this event we had to start from scratch yet again.
The course is 1.3 miles long of dry loose surface and you are timed as you pass the finishing line.
On our first run we managed a 130.690 run.
We didn’t get a chance to run the car for a second time on the first day as the event finishes fairly early.
It starts to get dark around 3.30pm.
So we retired for the evening.
The next morning was equally cold but without any rookie stuff to do, we were at the front end of the line nice and early.
Due to a bit of a misunderstanding with the starter and a concern over the ambient temperature we fired the car up a little too early. By the time we finally got off the line we were very close to boiling.
This had an unexpected affect on the clutch and as a result Ian had a few issues selecting gears.
So using first, fourth and sixth he completed the second run at 139.411mph.
This was a really valuable lesson. We now have definable limits to starting temperatures for a successful run.
We allowed the car to cool down whilst we attended to other matters and lined up for a third run.
As you can see when the vehicles run a fair amount of dust is thrown up.
The downside of this is, it rips up the surface under the car.
By the time all of the race vehicles had been down the course throughout the day, the surface began to deteriorate.
On our third run the car became almost undriveable to the point where Ian pulled the parachute around the one mile area.
Very unusually the parachute failed to deploy. Luckily because Ian was only going around 120 mph, once letting off he regained control and used the brakes to come to a stop in the correct area. As a result of the ‘chute failure one of the race officials came over to check all was well.
During the course of the ensuing conversation he said “I ought to give you a ticket for chute failure, but this car is possibly the coolest thing I’ve seen out here for years!”
Just before Ian’s run a couple of cars had spun and when another car following, also spun the organisers decided the course was unsafe and closed the event.
The other Ian, with the Triumph did not have such an eventful weekend.
Upon our arrival in California, we set to diagnosing the misfire Ian had suffered on his last run at Bonneville.
We found a couple of faults including an intermittent fuel pump relay and a very suspect ignition coil.
The relay repair was very straight forward, but finding a replacement suitable coil in the desert proved to be another matter.
After much running around and making do a new coil was eventually fitted and the bike was now running perfectly.
We went off to the start line to get Ian’s rookie run out of the way.
Upon arrival we were all set up ready to go, only to discover we had no gears at all!
With this disappointment we headed back to the pits and started work to try and solve this wayward gearbox issue.
It transpires that a washer had been misplaced, probably before the bike left the UK and this was allowing one of the gear shafts to move around more than it should.
There was zero chance of finding the correct washer anywhere in the area, so Bruce and Rich returned to Bruce’s machine shop and fabricated one from scratch.
The next morning the bike was reassembled and once again Ian was back at the starting line.
This time things were looking very promising and Ian set off with the correct amount of enthusiasm.
The bike performed faultlessly, although this was around the time the track was starting to break up and also Ian’s first run.
He managed a very respectable 77.104 mph.
His run plan was to run 20 mph faster than his last ‘decent’ run at Bonneville which was 57 mph.
What’s even more impressive about this, the Triumph has no speedometer!
Unfortunately, because of the state of the course and the time spent repairing the bike, this proved to be Ian’s first and only run.
However, both Ian’s have now lost their rookie status at El Mirage and a lot of lessons were learnt.
Although it was an at times frustrating event, there were an awful lot of positives to take away and we feel we are now even more prepared for whatever next year brings.
We couldn’t have done this without the invaluable assistance of the following people
Bruce Bridges
Rich Stratford
Andy Best
Uncle Wes
Dale
We were also saddened to hear of the passing away of long time friend of the project and bend in the road gang founder John Sattersfield.
We intend to give John a proper tribute in a future update.
R.I.P. John
