The Old School at Bonneville

Digging through the bins at my local flea market, I unearthed a gem; a 1952 copy of Cycle magazine.  The cover photo was tremendous; Blackie Bernal’s Triumph Thunderbird record-breaker, ready to be foot-shoved off the starting line at the Bonneville Salt Flats.  The pusher’s foot sneaks into the photo, but most dramatically, Blackie is wearing nothing that might be called safety equipment, barring a 1930s era ‘pudding basin’ helmet.  As Rollie Free proved in his 1950 Vincent 150mph ‘bathing suit’ speed record, less clothing means less drag, and no doubt less heat under the Utah sun.  While the Salt Flats sit at 4200′, and temperatures are rarely above 90degrees, the blinding white salt and utter lack of shade on the dry lake bed can be punishing.

Blackie Bernal is best known for his use of a ‘reverse head’ on his Triumph, with the carburetors facing forwards, presumably in the interest of free ‘supercharging’ of the incoming fuel/air mix.  To this end, he fitted huge metal funnels to his carbs to focus the incoming wind, which presumably included a measure of salt spray as well! He ran and re-ran the black-line course for a full 8 days to reach his goal. While the engineering philosophy behind his work is questionable, there’s no doubt his machine was very fast; he averaged 144.338mph over two runs, giving him the 40 cubic” Class A American speed record.

That speed was purchased at the expense of a considerable swath of skin from Bernal’s rider, Tommy Smith of Turlock, CA.  He’d come off at over 140mph, and according to Cycle, “had a spellbinding spill. When he had finally stopped grinding bodily across the salt, Tommy arose and waved to the crowd that he was all right, before sinking back to the ground.”  Racing on the salt was then suspended for 4 hours, while the ambulance was away with Smith, who required several skin grafts.  One shudders to think of a near-naked bodysurf across the surprisingly rough surface of the salt flats – rubbing salt into the wound indeed!

The fastest time of the meet in 1952 according to the organizers the Southern California Timing Association (then only 3 years old!) was 168mph, achieved by the 80 cubic” Harley-Davidson Knucklehead of CB Clausen and Bud Hood.   The Knuck had no fairing and no supercharger, but probably ran special fuel – a respectable speed in any era!