Sunday morning saws a mandatory 8am rider's meeting, against the backdrop of a beautiful sunrise, and then it was time to get going!
We knew we’d be queuing a lot, however, the Bonneville system is efficient and you can get set up at the mile one start point, with a support vehicle and all your kit, plenty of shade, water and company and wait your turn. The first day of racing was definitely a ‘shakedown’ for Team Wildcard. Both guys took a couple of runs and got to know the system, the course and the salt
On Monday there was nothing keeping the guys in bed and the sun was only starting to show itself as they rode onto the salt.
Both Miki and Phil were first in line on Mountain One and after several runs, both bikes were performing well, but neither were quite quick enough to beat the existing records they were trying for. Phil needed to find an extra 2 mph and Miki needed to discover an extra 1 mph. So by the end of the day, the guys took both bikes back to Motel 6 and chased the sun, working on both, in the car park, until the light had completely disappeared.
Phil changed the cam timing on his Triumph 350 and Miki decided to take the head off his 650 Triumph and fit a thinner head gasket, raising the compression slightly. Lots of the motel neighbours were very interested to see this work happening out of the paddock and lots of helpful advice was given.
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