Sidecar Racing

I bought a complete wrecked TL1000R street bike and a second engine from a wrecked bike as a spare.  The engine and electronics were stripped from the wrecked bike for installation into the sidecar chassis.  Sprint car wheels (13 inch and 10 inch) were purchased from Keiser Wheels.  Identical front and rear rally tires came from Michelin and side tire from Hoosier.  Custom wheel hubs were designed and CNC machined.  Don't ask how much all this was costing us.  With all the fun we have blasting up Pikes Peak and roosting in the off-road events, it's well worth it!

In November, my dad and I flew to Belgium to begin chassis fabrication at the EML sidecar factory.  Jean-Pierre Maes took his standard motocross sidecar jig, and modified it to fit our unique needs.  The beautifully chromed bare chassis was completed and delivered to my home in California for fabrication of the remaining components.

This turned out to be a major effort, and it was looking like the new bike may not be completed in time for the June 30th race at Pikes Peak.  I dropped off our blown up Harley engine at Bartels' to be rebuilt as a backup in case the new sidecar didn't come together in time, or had problems in practice.  As it turned out, Bartels' did a fantastic job on the Harley, giving us 97 horsepower and 88 ft-pounds of torque for our backup bike (thanks Wil, Earl, and Bill).  It was tempting to ride the Harley instead of the new bike, but we knew the new bike would eventually be superior.  We worked many late nights and weekends to get the sidecar together in time for the big race.

I wanted to do one last ride to sort out some fuel delivery problems we were having.  With a fuel injected machine like this TL1000R, there is no float bowl.  The fuel is delivered by a high-pressure pump directly to the injectors.  One consequence is that the fuel pump must ALWAYS be immersed in fuel.  You can't have it go dry for a second in a sharp turn when all the fuel sloshes to one side of the tank, or the engine will die.  On a sidecar this fuel sloshing happens in every turn.  I had built a baffle inside the fuel tank around the pump to keep it wet even in turns, but it failed when going in circles, so I had made a modification to solve the problem.  On this last ride we got a bit reckless sliding in a right turn and lost control.  The bike slapped me (passenger) onto the ground at high speed, and bobbled with Pete (driver) still aboard.  In the end it didn't flip as it should have, so Pete was ok, but I laid there for several minutes in great pain.  Eventually I got up and walked away from it, but I had road rash in various places, a very sore tail bone, and a possible broken finger.  The race was still two weeks away, but I needed all my body parts working in order to complete the bike.

The next weekend we took the bike out again for some serious high speed testing.  All the major components were completed, so we could ride it hard to see what might malfunction or break.  My various crash pains went away as soon as I got on the bike.  It felt great at high speed.  The engine rev limiter kicked in at 11,000rpm, which was just over 100 mph (160km/hr).  It was very stable at race speeds, and the power felt great (~125 horsepower stock).  Everything was working as planned, nothing broke, and we didn't crash.  All we had to do was get some paint and sponsor stickers on, finish up a few details, and hit the road for Colorado.

The morning of departure I put the last finishing touches on and snapped a few photos.  It was a winning racing machine for sure, but it also turned out to be a very sharp looking bike!

The final run is the qualifying run, which determines starting position in the race.  We wanted to get the best time so we could have first choice for starting position.  The run went very well, but our time of 6 minutes 0.46 seconds was 4 seconds behind Nilsson / Grindberg.  The third qualifying sidecar team of David Krohn / Gary Cass on an EML / Honda CBR900R was a safe 15 seconds behind us.  In this one run we had lost the radiator cap, boiled over, blown a fuse, and lost the chance at the best starting position.  It was going to take everything we had to beat Nilsson / Grindberg.  We love a tough challenge, and this race was turning out to be exactly that !

But first we had a host of tasks to complete before our 3:00am wakeup on race day.  A bike wash down, tire changes, new radiator cap, wiring repairs, fabrication of wind scoops for the radiator, and all the final race preparations were completed by 5:00pm.

At 6:00pm we went to a race benefit dinner and concert.  There were over 400 employees from the Suzuki factory in Japan attending.  They had come to see "Monster" Tajima take his car up the mountain in an attempt to beat Rod Millen's record time of 10 minutes 4 seconds.  We were intent on bringing these 400 race fans a win on our EML/Suzuki as well.

Nilsson / Grindberg selected the left side as their choice on the starting line.  It appeared to have a little better traction, but we felt we had a good chance of getting the hole shot from the right as well.  When the start flag waved, we were off quickly.  They got a good drive and edged us out in the first turn.  Pete pushed hard and held close behind.  Swedish passenger Tom Grindberg looked back several times in the first few turns to see where we were.  That was comforting to me knowing the pressure was on them as we stayed close on their tail.  In the straights their hopped up race motor clearly had a horsepower advantage over our totally stock motor, and they pulled away with each opportunity.  We seemed to catch up a bit in the turns.  Over the next couple of miles they stretched out a lead of about two or three seconds.  We kept pushing hard, watching for a mistake on their part.  They made no mistakes, but we kept hanging in there.  We weren't making any mistakes either.  Pete was pushing the motor so hard it seemed we were hitting the rev limiter more than we were off it.  He was working our 125 horsepower stock TL1000R for everything it had.  At Glen Cove there is a radar speed check.  We both blew through there at the same speed, 78.3 mph (125km/hr).  Through the switchbacks, we held our position just 3 or 4 seconds behind.   This was about half way, and we needed to make a hard charge soon, or settle for second place.

At Devil's Playground there is a huge crowd watching from this prime viewing position. Most of our crew were there cheering us on.  I was concentrating on the race and didn't see any of them along side the course.  I knew they were there, so I gave a quick wave behind as we sped away.  We seemed to be gaining a bit as we passed through Bottomless Pit.  As we approached Gravel Pit, Pete aimed for the outside line around the wide left turn.  This is probably the fastest section on the course for us, and there was a huge pothole in the middle of the road half way around the turn.  Wow, suddenly we were right on top of Nilsson / Grindberg, and they were taking the same outside line that we were on.  We were coming up on them quickly, and Pete swung towards the inside just as that pothole came up.  We went straight through it at 80 mph (125km/hr), and hugged the left side of the road.  At the last moment Nilsson seemed to hear us coming, and he quickly accelerated and began moving to the left into our line as we pulled beside.  Our sidecar is on the right side, and theirs is on the left, so the sidecars were together as we approached.  It was too late for them to block us, and as we pulled beside them our sidecars slammed together wheel to wheel.  We had no room to move over further on the left and the sidecars banged several more times as we drag raced them to the next turn.  At over 80 mph (125km/hr) on such a twisty dirt road, it was not a good time to be sharing paint!  This was a race though, and neither team was giving in easily.  As the next right approach, Pete held the throttle wide open and Nilsson / Grindberg backed off.  FANTASTIC, we were in the lead ! ! !  No time to celebrate as we pushed as hard as ever up the mountain.  Through Boulder Park we still held onto the lead, but Nilsson / Grindberg were right there behind.  After Boulder Park there is a long fairly straight uphill stretch where horsepower really counts.  They were coming up on us quickly as I yelled to Pete "GO GO GO".   He moved to the left and took away their passing opportunity just like they TRIED to do to us moments earlier.  That set them back a bit, and we pushed hard towards the Cog Cut hairpin left.  We went into that turn harder than ever, and I strained to hold myself on the sidecar as we braked hard and kicked the bike sideways.  We got a good drive out of the turn and pushed on.

WE WON ! 

At the Finish Line

Later we had a closer look at the damages from the impacts between bikes.  Our sidecar wheel had some severe gouges in it, with thick aluminum shavings hanging off.  Also, the top of the valve stem cap was sliced off.  Wow, a bit closer and we would have had a flat tire.  That would have surely cost us the win.  At the time I didn't feel any pain in my back, but later more impact evidence was found.

We had some edgy but friendly words with Nilsson / Grindberg at the top as we waited for the mid-day trek back down the mountain.  Apparently they had brake problems which affected their race.  They were clearly unhappy with their second place finish.  They had come to win, but came up short despite their best efforts.  It's a very expensive event for us coming from California, but for them it's far more expensive having flown all the way from Sweden with their crew, bike, tools, and spare motor.  They were intent on bringing home another win for their sponsors.  Returning next year will be difficult for them, but we hope they can do it.  We can't miss our favorite race, and we're counting on another tough "battle".

The next morning the Awards Banquet was held to honor the brave competitors, hard working crews, and dedicated race organizers and workers.  We gave our thanks, collected the beautiful trophies, and shared a lot of hand shakes.  Unfortunately, the prize money is reserved for other divisions.  Afterwards we said our good-byes to Nilsson / Grindberg and all the nice people from this great race.  We'll be back for sure!