The March 2013 Texas Mile was great for OSRT and its sponsors. Our NOS 705 KLR broke its old world record with a run of 129.0 MPH and did a back up run of 129.01 MPH. This is a full 4 MPH faster than the bike has ever run.
Our classic 1980 Honda CB750 “Stinkster” ran a very respectful 136.1 MPH with several back up runs of 131.6 to 135.7 MPH. We kept hitting the rev limiter so a complete gear change will be ready for the Bonneville Salt Flats.
This was going to be year that 400 MPH would be reached by a motorcycle and the place to do it will be the Bonneville Salt Flats. However Mother Nature had other ideas. During speed week the salt was wet and the rains came and went all week. None of the big streamliner bikes even unloaded from their trailers. Two weeks later at the BUB event the salt was the best I had ever seen.
Kerry wrote a article about trying to set a world record and all of the time money and experimenting it take to go for a world land seep record. It was voted the best article and was posted to all of the Texas Mile blogs, web site, and press release.
The BUB speed trials were as frustrating as racing can be. The Air density was reading 5400 feet were it is usually 3500 feet. We spent the first two days re-tuning the KLR for the lighter air. I managed several 110 MPH practice runs to get the carburetor right and on the third day every thing was ready to go except for the new Lithium battery decided to melt down. This cost us the day driving back to Salt Lake City to find a new Gel battery for the KLR. In the mean time our classic Honda was pounding out great speeds 124.6 125.2 126,8 and getting better but we were still hitting the rev limiter every time we used the NOS. Getting a new ignition and a complete gear change . . . next year we will be over 150!
We changed the final gearing on the Honda and installed the new Battery in the KLR so OSRT was set to make some good runs on the last day of the BUB Speed Trials. But the rains came and our team showed up to 4 inches of water in our pits. The entire track was under 3 to 8 inches of water so with out an air boat their would be no last day of racing. Still the Honda ran very respectfully and 110 MPH test runs on a KLR were not bad. BUB 7 ran a shake down run of 326 MPH and could have done much more. Hundreds of spectators came by to wish us luck and we had pictures of our pit and T-shirts all over the web.
Bonneville Nationals were canceled due to weather so none of the Streamliners were ever able to approach the 400 MPH mark but there is always next year.
After the BUB event the team headed over to Miller MotorSports Park to set up for the AHRMA vintage road racing. OSRT was well represented with many spectators coming by our pits to talk and say hi. We spent many hours on the track and shot lots of great video, which we are working on putting together several films for OSRT, AHRMA, and Side car racing.
The Texas Mile celebrated its 10th Anniversary in October. Old and Slow Racing was there to celebrate our 9th year at The Texas Mile. The bike ran great, just fought weather conditions all weekend. Our best speed was 117.6 in spite of a 20 MPH head wind. The crowds were unbelievable this year and everyone is excited for the “Houston Mile” races next spring.
Thanks for all of your encouragement and support this last year. We couldn’t do this without you!
