Day three at the Bolivia Speed Trials saw a day with great conditions on the Salar de Uyuni, but few who could take advantage of the 0-3 mph winds and fair temperatures.
Technical issues and “salt gremlins” plagued several teams throughout the day, which limited runs on the 15-mile course. However, it was Mike Garcia who spent the most time in the saddle on Sunday and he was rewarded with a one-way pass of 257 mph aboard his partially faired turbo-charged Hayabusa. The speed marked his personal best, upping his previous of 256 mph by one mile per hour.
Garcia is still several miles per hour shy of the class record, but plans to use the final day of the meet tomorrow to iron out his engine performance and increase his speed enough to claim the FIM World Record.
Al Lamb’s Dallas Honda team spent the past 24 hours dealing with some major technical issues that prompted the team to perform a full engine swap on Saturday night, confronting a blisteringly cold and windy night on the Salar. In the morning, the team was rewarded with another major issue that called for a turbo swap. “If it wasn’t for bad luck, we wouldn’t have any luck at all,” Lamb quipped.
Despite the setbacks, Lamb’s team still managed to get in a shakedown run at the last minute, and everything is, at last, running as it should. The team is looking forward to taking full advantage of the final day on the Salar.
Mike Akatiff’s team dealt with their share of “salt gremlins” today, as well. The crew made it as far as bringing the Ack Attack streamliner to mile 15 to prepare for a run, but technical issues once again stymied their attempt. The dejected team headed back to the pits, reluctantly, in the late afternoon, and plan to try again on Monday.
Jamie Williams made an attempt, getting off the line on his four-wheel streamliner, which was quickly aborted due to yet another small technical issue. Williams, like the rest of the teams, spent the late afternoon troubleshooting and preparing to make the best of the last day in the Bolivia Speed Trials.
“I think anything you do is ‘progress,’ right? It’s seat time,” said Williams. “We had a tip-over switch that kept shorting out because of the bumps. Technically we don’t even need a tip-over switch for FIA so we’re just going to tie around it.
“Obviously tomorrow’s the last day, so we’ll be humpin’ pretty good tomorrow along with everyone else.”
Text & photos by Jean Turner