We called Ben again, he brought his tow truck out to pick us up in the desert. He looked at the transmission, well it was dead. This is where the story gets even more interesting, and this is a great tale about great customer service. Ben hooked up his tow truck and carried our van another 150+ miles to Wendover Utah. He did this so that we could meet up with other Racers that were going to the Salt Flats and get with them the next morning. If you’re keeping track add another 150 miles towing right here. Ben dropped us off at the hotel. Ben came back the next day with his tow truck while we were racing towed our van back to Salt Lake City add another 150 miles if you’re keeping track and he started working on the van again.
Lucky for us there is this newfangled thing called Facebook and people were actually following our adventures on the road.
Cari and “Knuckhead” Bob Morrilli
Cari and Bob Morrilli live the high life in the High Desert,
of course they have cream in their Turkish Coffee every morning…
It’s good to be with people who know how to have good time.
Not too long after we checked it we were contacted by Knucklehead Bob Morrilli and his wife Cari Morrilli.
As it turned out, they were staying only two doors down from us in the same hotel and they had an empty trailer that they brought along to help out a friend, so they offered to pick us and all our gear in the van and take us to the Salt Flats.
They are both members of the Fez Monkeys, a motorcycle racing group from the Pacific Northwest, and were delighted to take us and all over motorcycle equipment, and stuff directly to the salt flats and set us up in prime territory right next to the Fez Monkeys racing group. I’ve done a lot of competitive things of my life and the people at Bonneville actually amazed me with their family spirit in there helping nature.
We got a great interview with “Mort” Neal Olsen of the Fez Monkeys Salt Racing team at the Bonneville Salt Flats in 2016. Mort not only has some way cool bikes he races at the salt, but is the “leader” of a great Bonneville family of racers, the Fez Monkeys. Steve Garn and I would not have made it to the salt if not for “Knucklehead” Bob and Cari Morrill, both Fez Monkeys. If you get a chance to see or visit with the Fez Monkeys in action at Bonneville please do, great people.
See me, I am waving at at the Drone. See me! I am on the far left-hand side about half way up, near the guy in the red shirt…
Steve and I were registered the first day on Saturday so we generally looked around and looked around the pits and set up our tent and checked things out. Bob and his wife introduced this to people being sure we were settled and even helped us get set up, road with Steve to start line on his first run.
They actually shared with us their food, sunblock and their knowledge of what the heck was going on, for that we are eternally grateful.
Steve and Chad at the Salt Flats Sign!
The next day Steve’s son, Chad, flew in from Cincinnati to help out and was great at helping Steve run up and down the salt. Steve set the first of his records that day.
Brew, Chad and The Umbrella girl…me!
The bike was running in the unfaired class with a 350 cc motor built previous to 1982. The bike is a old 1972 RD 350 Yamaha, if you remember those. Steve has designed a new frame for the bike similar to the old Norton motorcycle featherbed frame. This modification moved us from the production classes to modified class.
Brew on the Salt
When we went through bike inspection it was found that the little plastic piece that was our headlight was considered an aerodynamic aid, so we took the headlight off and ran the bike as a naked bike in that class first. The bike was pretty quick and broke the old record by almost 50 miles an hour! Somehow, the old record was pretty slow, but we did break it by a very large margin.
Drew and his wife Ashley from Buell Brothers Racing
After the second day Knucklehead Bob and Cari had to start the rest of their vaction and moved on so we were adopted by the Buell Brothers Racing. Drew and his wife Ashley from Buell Brothers Racing were perfect hosts to us and were happy to take us back and forth from our hotel to the salt flats and back each day. Again Steve and I were amazed at the hospitality and the family atmosphere that Bonneville has among all its racers. Drew of Buell Brothers Racing initially introduced us to the world-famous Carmen’s black-and-white grill in Wendover Utah, this is were the racers all hang out after their racing is done for the day. This is a Great place to hang out, and the history that’s on the walls will amaze you. Everybody who was anybody is in their on the walls waiting for you to take a look. Great food, great atmosphere, and cold drinks who could ask for more!
The Bike all 350cc of it!
We continued on through the week of racing and after setting record in the naked bike class Steve changed the fairing back to the plastic head lamp and we changed classes and continued to race. Steve quickly broke the record in this class. On his last run the bike was running a little weak and that’s when we discovered the head gaskets were leaking. We replaced the head gaskets and Steve went out and set the record it is now over 115 miles an hour.
I watched a very cool 500cc Honda single run today on the salt. This thing was pretty quick for single and the sound of it hitting the cam on fuel is worth the look… Bonneville 2016 at the Salt Flats!
We continued racing in the week and after fixing the head gaskets, Steve decided to run in the naked class again and raise that record which he did!
Wednesday on the Salt, we were dialing in our bike all day, I talked with Tony from Homewood Springs, CO and he showed me his 1975 Suzuki Titan T500 twin. Later we looked at a 300plus MPH Streamliner….. a pretty good day
You expect a lot of things on the Salt Flats, but Music is not usually one them. However, Drew Gatewood not only is a great mechanic, and an AMA inspector, but quite a singer and guitar player. Who knew? Now this something different and fun, enjoy
Meanwhile while we were racing Ben is back inside the city putting together the transmission. The transmission is complete then then takes the van for a test ride.and as luck would have it, the transmission again blew. At this point Ben and everyone knew that something was really, really wrong. The transmission had blown up a total of three times now! So he now called in the experts from all over the city, with everyone looking at it. What they found was that the transmission case that was in the van was three quarters of an inch too long! Before Steve had bought the van someone had put in the wrong transmission, it seems. Somehow, it worked well enough to take us from North Carolina to Wyoming, but no more. Ben then got the correct transmission case which was three quarters of a inch shorter from a Ford Crown Victoria which just happened to be sitting in his lot, and replaced it. Ben then tested the band by driving up to Park city, 11,000 feet up in the air and back. He then drove the van out to the Salt Flats to deliver to us on Wednesday night. Can’t say enough about good customer service and follow up that Ben did for us on our trip. I think with any other transmission guy we’d still be in Salt Lake City, even now.
Very Cool Guinea Pig Motorcycle we got to see at the Bonneville Salt Flats 2016. Of course Bonneville is noted for its great racing machines and mechanical engineering excellence, but this really caught my eye. The Builder was very nice guy and showed us all the features, take look, maybe more Burning Man than Bonneville but very cool.
So Steve and I got our van back and were able to motor out to the salt flats are on set up shop and continued racing on Thursday. It was the last day of racing and we had a super time.
At the banquet Thursday night at the Royal Casino in Wendover Nevada, Steve was a recipient of the 11th annual Enthusiast Award..
Fritz Hoffer Bonneville Legend
Thursday Night Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials Awards banquet was a HUGE gathering!
Fritz Hoffer Bonneville Legend
Thursday Night Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials Awards banquet was a HUGE gathering!
This award given by The Buell Brothers Racing is for the racer who shows the greatest perseverance in getting to Bonneville and then shows a helping hand toward all the racers at the meet.
The Award is given in honor of Fritz Hoffer and old time racer who came and raced at Bonneville for years. In the words of many,
Fritz Hoffer did not have two nickels to rub together, but was always there and always helping others. Steve did embody Fritz’s traits helpfulness at Bonneville.
His positive attitude toward all and his helpful nature to other racers was noted and Steve Garn AKA Brew was the winner going away.
Steve, with no surprise to me, won the Fritz Hoffer award.
Steve comments:
“I feel so humbled that I received the 11th Annual Fritz Kott Enthusiast Award, given to the team that best exemplifies the spirit of motorcycle land speed racing.”
Steve also received the Lucky Charms Award! If given to the racer that needs a little “luck” the next time, but overcame all the negative stuff and persevered.
Stay tuned for Part IV…The trip and coming home!
