Bonneville Bullet makes an offering to the God of Speed

They hope to be the world's fastest Indian-made Royal Enfield Bullet.

There's no time for more than terse updates from the Bonneville Bullet team racing at the Salt Flats in Utah this week.

Dan Holmes and his DRS Cycle team are struggling just to keep their semi-streamlined Royal Enfield Bullet in the race. The Bonneville Bullet is competing both on gas alone and with a nitrous oxide system.

The first day of competition Sunday, running on gasoline, was encouraging.

"Our first run was 101 in fifth gear and our second run is 105.9 in fourth. Our (times) are really close, so we are going to make our fuel runs (Monday). We are hoping the wind stays down and we make two good passes. We made it through tech for fuel and we are ready to race today!" Dan advised Monday.

The God of Speed had other plans.

"Dan called me this afternoon so that I could pass on some news from the Bonneville Bullet effort on the Salt Flats," wrote Phil Myers from the team's home state, Indiana.

"After setting up the nitrous for a 10 horsepower boost, Johnny Szoldrak passed through the traps at 120 mph and change.

"On a return run and with another step up in NOS the piston failed and Johnny coasted home at 90 mph for a combined two-way average of 105 mph or so.

"They have figured that the mixture went incredibly lean with a possible failure of the fuel boost solenoid but that is just a guess at this point. The team is now changing engines to continue to search for more speed in both gas and fuel categories. I don’t have much more info than that and I’m certain that they have their hands full with the engine swap. More to follow. Wish them luck!"

Dan himself wrote later, no doubt after a long night. His message was a short as a telegram from the War Department:

"Went 120.9 one way today, 91.9 on return and blew it up. Switching our spare motor and hope to improve tomorrow. Dan."

The most concrete encouragement anyone can offer right now would be a donation to the team's PayPal account dch23@yahoo.com

PayPal provides a space for your personal note to the team. Include your mailing address. Dan has promised an 8x10 autographed photo of the team to all donors.