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RG Racers: Shane Kennealy
How about a couple of Land Speed records for the RG500?
In a freakish coincidence, Jason appears to be my doppleganger.
At least from this angle- it is really spooky.
Shane and his mates went to Bonneville in 1996, in an effort to set a land speed record with the mighty RG500. They struggled against a variety of forces, leaving with no records but much wiser. Here is the story of their first attempt:
GAMMA FEVER: Turns into Headache for Canadian Team
The third week in August marks the annual pilgrimage to the Bonneville Salt
Flats by speed-hungry racers from across the planet, all of them in search
of the "holy grail of hot-rodding," a Bonneville World Land Speed Record.
Article by Shane Kenneally
Reprinted by permission of Len Creed, Publisher, Canadian Biker magazine
Issue: December, 1996
Following last year's success in the 350cc motorcycle class, I planned to
campaign a Suzuki RG500 Gamma in the 500cc production class at Speedweek
'96, running against an old 145-mph record established in 1986. My Faded
Glory teammate, Jason McVicar, had also prepared a highly modified,
big-bore 570cc Gamma with which he hoped to take the 650 production class
record, currently set at 156 mph. Extensive dyno testing of my 500 Gamma
at sponsoring dealer, Murray Neibel's Modern Motorcycling shop in
Vancouver, had produced 92 horsepower at the rear wheel, good for over 160
mph. We thought! These Gamma's were hot!
Arriving at Bonneville, the weather was hotter than the bikes - about 125
degrees out on the salt! A bit too much for us northern folk. I got my
usual dose of heat exhaustion on the first day, cured by drinking gallons
of water and consuming salty chips. The course itself had been rained out
for the USFRA event in July abut a month-long hot spell had dried the salt
somewhat. I thought it looked considerably wetter than in 1995 but this
turned out to be quite an understatement! The two Gammas created quite a
stir when we unloaded them in the pits as these bikes are very rare in the
USA. Following some heated discussion the Tech Inspection crew eventually
declared the bikes "legal" to run for a production record although they
weren't too happy about the whole idea.
A short stab at the kickstart lever fired my 500 Gamma into life. The
crisp crackle of a highly-tuned two-stroke cut the still silent air at the
start of the five-mile course. I was ready to take my first run down the
salt.
Running a bike fast at Bonneville is essentially a three-mile drag race.
You get two miles to get up to top speed and the timing clocks record you
through the third-mile trap. It is critical to get a good launch and rev
the rods off the bike in the lower gears in order to carry the speed
through to the higher gears - this keeps the motor spinning up in the
powerband. Rolling resistance from the salt and aerodynamic drag increase
dramatically at high speed. The bike will fall right out of the powerband
and fall flat on its face if you don't get it right! I screamed the bike
to 11,500 rpm in each gear with the back wheel spinning wildly, throwing up
salt in real hooligan style. This is fun stuff. Hit 135 mph in fourth,
powershift and bang it into fifth and blaaargh! The motor wouldn't rev
over nine grand and maxed out in fifth at only 120 mph. the much
anticipated "Gamma fever" quickly tuned into a headache that ended up
lasting all week.
My teammate Fason had the same problems with the big-bore Gamma, the bike
refusing to top out in the higher gears under load. We were not alone:
many of the other bikes reported the identical problem. After
experimenting with every jet and gear ratio we had in the box, we finally
concluded we had an air density problem that was dramatically affecting the
exhaust pulse waves in the expansion chambers, making both bikes run
"off-song." The exteme heat was producing low air pressure readings
equivalent to running at over 7,000 feet altitude; that's halfway up Mount
Everest by my reckoning! Many Bonneville two-stroke tuners compensate for
this phenomenon by building larger expansion chambers that resonate
correctly at this altitude. Unfortunately for us, production rules mandate
stock pipes, so the problem was out of our control. All we could do was
pray for cooler weather which didn't happen. On the Sunday, Salt Lake City
broke their all-time record temperature high. It couldn't get much worse.
The combination of low relative air density readings and wet salt made it
slow going all week. The more fuel we took out of the bikes in order to
get the correct air/ruel ratio actually worked against us, producing less
and less horsepower as the air got thinner. My little Yamaha 350 went five
mph faster last year - go figure! Jason however, did manage to get the
big-bore Gamma up to 135 mph and successfully qualified for his D license.
We are both looking forward to going much faster next year.
It came as no surprise that the number of new records set during Speedweek
'96 was dramatically down from last year. Less than half last year's
figure of 29 new records were established.[snip - non gamma details].
The Faded Glory Racing Team extends our special thanks to: Modern
Motorcycling Ltd. of Vancouver and Gamma Performance of Victoria, BC for
their assistance in the development of our Suzuki racebikes; Dunlop Tires
for providing us with great tires; Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers who paid our
gas bill; and of course the continued support of CB magazine and our other
sponsors who helped us make it happen. Hopefully we can get better
conditions next year. Stay tuned.
Shane Kenneally
Of course, we know that Faded Glory Racing persevered and hit a home run in 1998.... see Shane’s note below, just after his runs in 1998:
Hi Bob,
Yes thats right my 500 Production Gamma qualified at Bonneville with a run at 161 mph! on Monday.
Not bad for stock carbs and pipes???
I knew we had a fast bike as it had gone over the 322 kmh/200 mph default limit on Murray's dyno at Modern's shop in Vancouver the week before, shredding the rear tire in the process!!
Unfortunately the return run wasn't as good. There was low cloud cover at 7am on Tues. that had not allowed the salt to dry as it normally does and also created a high humidity level that displaced some air. Despite the 5% increase in air density at 7 am. , the bike was running rich and fouled two plugs at 145 mph entering the mile when you really put the load on it! At the quarter a huge side wind blew me right off the track! I got it back on track and spluttered across the line at 129 mph missing the 145 mph record by 0.7 mph!!
Doug Myer had the same misfortune on the Muzzy Kawasaki. He ran 199.88 and was heading for the 200 club he thought - only ran 183 on the return. We sat down and talked it out and figured the humidity did it to us! Can't run fast on wet salt.
I re-qualified the Gamma that afternoon when the track had dried at 148.905. Backed it up wednesday at 7 am. with a 147.579 pass. The Gamma officially now holds the world land speed record for a 500 production motorcycle at 148.242 mph.
I also set the 1350 Production Pushrod record at 150.02 riding a Fred Deely Canada sponsored Buell White Lightning. Buried the old record of 144 mph. Incidently the S1 motor was bone stock! Stock cams, Stock Pistons, Stock Heads!!! Quite a package i'd say!
My team mate Jason McVicar set the 750 Prod record at 162 mph on his new GSXR. Qualified it on his first pass, backed it up with his second run.
Jasons 570 Gamma set the 650 Altered Gas record at 154 mph with a down run of 159 and 150 on the return.
So we have two Gamma records now!! Jasons bike ran 35mm TMX carbs and Nikons. He's still pissed my 500 went faster with stock carbs and pipes!!!
Anyway, We took four bikes down and came back with four world records.
It doesn't get much better.
You can read all about this stuff in upcoming editions of Canadian Biker, probably the November issue.
Canada kicks ass!! Eh!
Cheers
Shane K