Team Subtle Crowbar is a fun loving, loony group working toward a Moto Guzzi powered world land speed record in 2008. 

We are building a land speed racer based upon a 1987 Lemans SE . Our goal is to compete with it at the Bonneville Salt Flats in September of 2008.  The bike, named the Mandello Meteor will run in the 1000cc Modified Partial Streamlined Pushrod Gas class. The record for that class is held by a highly modified Harley powered Buell XB9 and now stands at 169.2 mph.

This will be a challenging endeavor, especially at the high elevation of Bonneville.  We plan to meet this challenge with extensive top end work and a lot of attention to aerodynamics with the special support of Kent Riches at Airtech Streamlining.

The team at this time consists of myself Bill Ross, my wife Mani Ross, my son Luke Ross, Canadian Fred Ghyselincks, Texan Tony Statz, Eric Hjeltness, Mark Seibert, Eric Anderson, Jon Ohnstad, Bill Duree, Sheldon Payne and Steve Perry. Steve is a fellow firefighter and put our website together.

We have had had the help of many friends with the donations of parts and cash and would like to thank the following people:  John Althaus, Mark Etheridge, Tony Statz, Mike and Janice Stewart, BJ Swartz, Tom Short, Eric Hjeltness, Peter McGrath, David Wilson, Scott Brown, David Knetzer, and Steve Perry for the web space and design.  

Our website will be periodically updated with status, photos, results, and changes in needs, sponsors etc.  We hope to soon offer team t-shirts to help raise funds for the Mandello Meteor. No funds will be used for travel, lodging, food or drinks, only for the bike and parts.

Any folks that would be interested in coming to Bonneville are warmly encouraged to attend and enjoy the camaraderie with us. We plan to pit with Tom Liberatore of The Pepperoni Brothers who will be racing their V7 Sport and currently are the only Guzzi to hold a Bonneville record I believe. It would be nice to see some Guzzisti.

Here are some scheduled Bonneville events for the Fall of 2008:

• Speed Week:  August 18-24
  http://www.scta-bni.org

• BUB Motorcycles Only:  September 2-7
  http://www.speedtrialsbybub.com

• USFRA World of Speed: September 17-20
  http://www.saltflats.com

• World Finals: October 8-11
  http://www.scta-bni.org

Also, here are some upcoming El Mirage Dry Lake Bed event dates for 2008:

• June 22

• July 20

• September 14

• October 26

• November 15-16

We will probably attend the BUB event in September...Please check back at our site for updates.

See you in Bonneville!

Team Subtle Crowbar Member Bios:

  Team Subtle Crowbar Picture Album