Motorcycle Maketplace Magazine

Big Changes sees Cemetery Circuit ’08 charging forward under new management and with a new Naming right’s sponsor.

Local businessman and sidecar racer Leighton Minnell has stepped up to the role of Event Manager, following the departure of Lloyd McKenzie.

At the same time, circuit resident SUZUKI NEW ZEALAND LTD has taken over as naming rights sponsor following the withdrawal of SsangYong New Zealand, who have supported the event for the last few years.

“It is fantastic that Suzuki New Zealand has come on board, since Russell Burling from SsangYong has moved on. We would like to thank Russell for his support over the last few years. I am sure that a great deal of the success associated with the Boxing Day event, was due to his support,” said Minnell from his Wanganui base.

With Suzuki coming on board as the major sponsor, the organising committee has decided to move the PITS back to their traditional home in Taupo Quay around the rail yards and Suzuki New Zealand’s Head Quarters. Suzuki will also be making available their extensive vehicle storage yard to be use as part of the pits.

“There has been a lot of discussions about the pit’s location since it was moved to Hatrick Street in 2004, so with Suzuki on board it was not hard to decide to move the pits back to Taupo Quay,” added Minnell

Unfortunately with the movement of the pits, the off-road part of the Supermotard track has had to be abandoned.

The legendary Britten motorcycle will also be returning to the Cemetery circuit this Boxing Day December 26.

The machine which won the BEARs race at Daytona in 1996, is owned by Aucklander Kevin Grant and will be ridden by multiple New Zealand Superbike Champion Andrew Stroud from Hamilton.

At present Stroud will be doing some demonstration laps, but depending on his other commitments on the day, Stroud may ride the bike in the BEARs class.

The Britten has not competed at Wanganui since 1996, then in the hands of Palmerston North’s Jason McEwen. McEwen took the Britten to three overall victorys at Wanganui, the first he shared the top spot with the late Robert Holden in 1992, won outright in 1994 and again in 1996.

Website: www.cemeterycircuit.co.nz

Black Thunder’s Kawasaki ZX-14 and the return to Bonneville Speed Week 2008.

The Black Thunder Racing Team of Alan Thoresen, (Owner /Rider) Violet Thoresen (PR/ Transport), Neil Powell (Crew Chief), Andy Goodridge (Asst Crew Chief), and Richard Ramsey (Crew) returned to the Bonneville Salt Flats for the second time to pursue a Land Speed Record in the PP 1650cc Category in Speed Week 2008.
The salt condition appeared to be quite smooth and firm this year compared with the wet moist salt of 2007.
We had to requalify to run the Kawasaki ZX-14 Black Thunder on the long course, as although Alan had the licences to run the long course, the bike was reconfigured to PP Class, and the bike had to requalify for the long course.
First setback was that we had to remove the GPS as the heat on the salt melted the tape securing it in place and caused the unit to slide down, giving potential for it to become jammed in the steering head.
The initial two runs were done on the short course, to test the handling and performance of the ZX-14 on the salt, which we ran to 167 mph. The salt felt slippery on the bike, although the tyres did not pick up salt as badly as it did when we participated in Bonneville Speed Week 2007.
The first run was just under 175 mph, which was probably not bad considering how Alan was feeling after starting the day with a migraine and vomiting. The good news was that with the adrenalin pumping after the run, Alan was feeling a lot better.
A slight configuration change and tyre change back to the Continental Road Attack tyres saw us pick up a little more performance on the next short course run, although traction was still an issue, as the Speedo went as high as 205 mph, however our real speed was just under 177 mph when we sighted the time sheets.
Although still well short of our goal and expectations, we took any improvement in speed as a blessing, and continued looking at other changes we could do.
This run gave us the 175 mph decal again for the bike as PP 1650cc class, and qualified the ZX-14 to run the long course.
We were running ERC fuel MUL/B which replaced the previous MUL/A we had run before. We had decided to change to ERC 110 based on comments from other racers.
We did a run on the long course and hit 174 mph at the first mile marker, however, we were still encountering a loss of traction, as again evident of a 205 mph speedo reading when in fact we were around 177 mph again.
This run was not a good one as Alan backed off a mile early, thinking he had passed the last marker, and then saw there was the 5 mile marker ahead so accelerated again back up to 176.382 mph.
Alan reported the bike sliding a little at speed, with the loss of traction, and the tunnel vision at that speed makes it challenging at times to observe just where you are on the track.
Next Day ….Yet another early start to try and get runs in when the air is cooler and we are operating with a lower density altitude and temperatures.
With a gearing change we were hoping to minimize wheel spin, but also plan to have the bike rev out further in each gear.
A quick stop for fuel again and we elected to move away from the ERC 110 Fuel as we were getting no added benefit from it and we found it was a leaded fuel and had concerns on what it would do to the Fuel Air Analyser probe.
On Thursday and an early start saw us head out for the short course.
Our first run went well with us running 177.562 mph, with an entry speed at the first mile of 177.14 mph, however wheel spin during the run saw speed decay to 172.896 mph, until it was brought under control.
Our second run saw Alan run the Kawasaki ZX-14 Black Thunder over the 180 mph mark with a speed of 181.678 mph. (Speedo reading 210 mph) It was quite interesting as all of the team and other spectators commented about the back tire howling as it ran out towards the first mile, snaking as it went. On this faster run Alan stood on the foot rests once in top gear and at around 175 mph, to raise his back up higher to try and get the high speed airflow to hit his back and force more weight on the rear tyre to counter the traction issues.
Alan said it was like running on a bed of marbles and as he moved to stand up slightly on the footrests he could feel the bike sliding underneath him. Not the most comforting thought however it worked, and Black Thunder managed to beat it’s previous best MPH from the previous year, and in a production configuration (ie. stock exhaust, no nitrous and standard suspension links so the bike was not lowered for the run.)
A number of subsequent runs were done in the day, however each time the temperature, and density altitudes crept up, eroding the performance of the ZX-14. This was our last opportunity to push our speed up higher at Speed Week 2008. We decided to go straight to the special course as it was reported that this course was running pretty fast and there were minimal delays in running on this course.
We pushed hard and churned out a number of 180/181 mph runs, and we seemed to be getting consistency with the runs, although still experiencing a loss of traction.
We were going well with trialling different fuel adjustments however we were advised over the CB Radio that they were closing the course at 10am.
The run off from the special course had quite moist salt so it meant additional cleaning of the bike and radiator after each run. Another gremlin attacked us when Alan had done a run on the special course, and was overheating in his leathers waiting to be collected, by the rest of the team in the RV and trailer.
After a prolonged period of waiting between the three and four mile mark Alan became concerned because it was over 15 minutes since the recovery vehicle should have been there to pick him and the bike up.
Eventually the motor home and trailer finally arrived and it was advised that the trailer had experienced a failure of the draw bar linkage, and the trailer had come adrift where it was supported, and caused the RV to drive erratically on the salt. Neil used a couple of tools to attach the draw pin in place.
All in all we managed 10 runs on the salt on the Saturday with speeds just under 182 mph. Whilst we fell short of the current land speed record for our class which remains unbroken at 196 mph, in analysing our progress, we had broken our personal record from Bonneville 2007 and completed 26 runs on the salt this year.
The constantly changing conditions between temperature, density altitude and salt all impact on performance and it is where the challenge begins to get every extra mph out of the ZX-14.
All these factors command respect of the salt by those who race on the salt.
Many a racer has been humbled by the challenge of the salt, when they finally get that first run in, and realize this is no “walk in the park”.
Once again we have gained more experience with the salt conditions and the salt fever has taken hold and already there are thoughts with the Black Thunder Team of the next record challenge at Bonneville.
www.blackthunder.co.nz