JETASAURUS REX
BIG
The Bikesters get to the track very early, and something totally unreal is just pulling through the gate as they arrive! In fact, it’s almost as outrageous as SuperBike and RocketBike. It’s the awesome, ground-shaking Jetasaurus Rex. This thing is powered by two huge J-57 jet engines with afterburners and they say you can hear it run from miles away!
Jetasaurus is here to race the winner of the Jet Car Eliminations for the right to race Terry on RocketBike in the big finale, and is an absolute Goliath among race cars, it’s moved from race to race on a huge tilt trailer, like they use for the Unlimited hydroplane in the Can-Am Harvest Show.
They all marvel at the sheer size of Jetasaurus Rex. "I’ve heard that it has so much power, you can feel the ground move when they fire it up," says Nitro.
Jet Car Bill
Jetasaurus pits near them, and soon Terry has struck up a conversation with the driver, or pilot, as he calls himself. Nitro looks over and says to TK and Jim, "This should be good. They’re feeling each other out to see who’s the craziest. The pilot of Jetasaurus Rex calls himself Jet Car Bill and he wears an Air Force flight suit and reflecting sunglasses all the time."
Whoa, thinks Terry, this is some serious stuff. But he and Terry quickly become friends. Terry learns that actually his name is Bill Hollings, and that he’s a dairy farmer in Wisconsin. By being Jet Car Bill when he’s racing he can live a nice quiet life with his family when he’s at home. Hmm, thinks Terry. Who can hardly even go to the supermarket in his hometown anymore without being mobbed. Pretty smart.
It seems like as soon as they open the gates and start letting spectators in the pits are jammed! Most of the racers pit fairly close together, but the Bikesters, Jetasaurus Rex, and Bo Barns each have plenty of room around them for the crowds. It’s a good thing to because the crowds are humongous. Betty and Lupé wanted to come to the races today, so Jim brought his bus. Having the bus parked back to back with the Bikester trailer makes for a bit more comfort.
Super fast
At noon the Fuel Dragster and Jet Car Eliminations begin. What a show! All the fastest and quickest cars have never been together at one race before. Because this is a "Run What Ya Brung" race, the usual rules limiting engine size, etc. are not in effect. It’s wide open and everyone is going for all time records. Bo has already been over 330 miles and hour, and the way he’s running he might hit 335!
Terry’s been watching when Bo runs and just like Nitro figured, he has a big engine in the dragster, probably around 600 cubic inches, well above the engine size he’s limited to in the races he runs all year. He’s probably changed the rear end gears, too. The sanctioned races try to control performance to some degree in order to make the races more competitive, and because many of the racetracks don’t have enough shut off area to be safe for super high speeds.
This track has tons of room to stop in. Nitro suspected that would be Bo’s secret weapon, to go for big horsepower and really hang it out. Bo is running really hard he wants to beat Terry real bad.
Process of Elimination
Things have been hectic in the pits all day. The crowds are beyond huge, and there are press and television people to deal with almost constantly. On the racetrack the fuel dragster eliminations have come down to Bo, and a car from Virginia. The winner is to face SuperBike in the match race. There’s no question at all, in Bo’s mind, who will be going against Terry in that race.
Terry goes up to the starting line to watch the race and do a little commentary on TV, which is kinda fun. Sure enough, Bo wins. Terry rides with the TV crew down to the finish line, where they will do an interview with Terry and Bo to get the television audience ready for their upcoming match race.
Bo gets out of his dragster, he hears that has just turned over 335 and beating his chest yells, "I’m the King!"
Terry looks over at him and says, "Not yet." The interview goes on from there. While they’re talking in front of the camera, there’s an ominous rumbling from the starting line. Both Terry and Bo look, it’s Jetasaurus Rex!
A sporadic, roaring and booming noise reaches their ears as Jet Car Bill pops the afterburners to produce short bursts of fire, smoke and noise down on the starting line.
Jetasaurus Sampler
Even from this far away, Terry knows Jetasaurus is putting on a major show. Terry wonders if he is going to be able to top Jet Car Bill show-wise. Terry has never had anybody put on a better show than he does, especially at the starting line. They can see that Jetasaurus and its competition the winner of the jet car eliminations, Doug Flowers in the Flamethrower are already staged and waiting for the green.
Terry can feel the power of Jetasaurus before he hears it, shock waves rippling and waving through the air. The light turns green, and Jetasaurus leaves the starting line with both afterburners lit! Nitro was right it does make the ground move. The two jets roar down the track towards them leaving a trial of jet smoke, and just like that, the race is over. Jetasaurus rumbling past them as it is slowed to a stop by its four parachutes.
Terry and Bo look at each other and say, "Awesome!" at the same time.
After watching three tons of vehicle hurtling towards him, accelerating from a standstill to nearly 360 m.p.h. in less then four and a half seconds, Terry thinks, That’s a pretty fast ride for a dairy farmer! He can wear a flight suit and sunglasses anytime he wants, as far as I’m concerned.
The highlights of the remainder of the race will be the match race between Bo Barns and Terry on SuperBike, which will take place in about an hour. Half an hour after that, the last race of the day, the big finale with Terry on RocketBike facing Jetasaurus Rex! This will be the all time ultimate power race.
Rematch: SuperBike vs. Bo Barns
Both SuperBike and Bo’s dragster are sitting at the front of the staging lanes as Bo and Terry give one last pre-race interview in front of the television cameras. They engage in the usual bating and bantering, thoroughly entertaining a large viewing audience. Now it’s down to business! With a handshake between the two sometimes friendly antagonists, Bo prepares to be buckled into his dragster while Terry confers with Nitro before getting on SuperBike.
Bo fires up first, and you can hear the extra cubic inches in the engine they’ve built just for this race in the deeper then usual exhaust note. He rolls across the starting line and lights up the tires in a monster burnout. As Bo is starting his burnout, they fire up SuperBike and Nitro removes the portable starter.
Just as Bo finishes his burn out, and is concentrating on his race plan and on the hand signals his crewman is giving him as he backs up, Terry starts his burnout. He knows that coming past Bo from behind with the tire smoking hard when he is totally involved in thoughts about the race will confuse Bo for a second and maybe break his concentration.
If only just for a second or two, it could throw his timing off just a little, and drag racing is a sport where wins are measured in one thousandths of a second. Terry has a plan. He knows Bo’s car can beat him this time.
He really had to hang it all out to beat Bo at Sonoma, and now with the big engine in Bo’s car and the other changes they’ve made, Bo’s running faster and quicker then he ever has before, and he was the fastest and quickest before!
Terry’s Tricks
However, Terry also knows that with all that extra power, it’s really easy to smoke the tires and lose the race. Terry thinks he can rattle Bo just enough so that he’ll put his foot in it just a little too hard and light’em up!
Sure enough, when Terry smokes by it takes Bo out of the normal mindset he’s in at this point in a race for just a split-second, Bo is distracted, losing his focus at the time when he most needs to concentrate.
Bo knows Terry has done it on purpose, and he tries not to let it bother him. And Terry knows that he knows, which is one of the reasons it works, Bo and Terry know each other quite well. They’ve raced each other many times over the years.
By the time th
at they are both back behind the starting line, pulling forward into the staging lights, Bo is dialed back in, not even looking over at Terry. But Terry still has a few more tricks up his sleeve. He waits for a few long seconds after Bo has staged and lit the yellow light in his lane. Terry knows Bo will get a little nervous wondering when Terry is going to pull up to the line.
Once he is finally staged and has lit the yellow Ready light in his lane, Terry has to launch harder then he has ever had before. SuperBike launches so hard that no car can stay even close at the start anyway. If Terry can come off the starting line even a little harder, he might get so far ahead at the start that Bo would then step on it too hard to catch up, going up in smoke rather than waiting for the dragster’s superior top end charge to make up the difference at the finish. The green light flashes and Terry launches harder then ever!
But Bo keeps cool and makes a good smooth start. He feels he has this big inch high horsepower set-up dialed in, and he’s not going to let Terry rattle him. Before they’re even three quarters of the way down the track, Terry can feel Bo coming up on him. Sure enough, Terry looks over and sees that Bo is already almost even with him. Man, thinks Terry, he’s got a bunch of power!
S-Bike under Control
But Terry still has one more trick left. He’s left the wheelie bars loose, so he can do any height wheelie he wants. Terry has such a good feel for SuperBike that he can control it to the point of knowing how many inches the front wheel is off the ground and hold it right there.
The way the bike is set up, the torque reaction throws forward and tends to push the front wheel down. It won’t do a wheelie unless you want it to, and right now Terry wants to do a wheelie!
Just as Bo starts to pull past him, Terry eases up on the throttle just a little; he feels an increase in traction and the front wheel come up. Suddenly he’s doing a four foot high wheelie at over 250 miles and hour! When Bo sees that, he’s totally unnerved, and immediately loses his concentration. His foot wavers on the throttle and he lights up the tires, as Terry holds the wheelie through the finish line lights, winning by inches!
Bo is fit to be tied. He’s screaming at Terry as he gets out of his dragster. Terry just laughs, and holds his finger up to his lips, and says: "Shh! The press, you know. We don’t want to look bad on TV!" And they give a great finish line interview, except Bo, who’s kind of quiet.
For the second time, Bo gets to be in some spectacular racing footage that will be shown everywhere, losing to Terry! There won’t be a third time! Next time Bo wins, thinks Bo. He’s going to build the Mother of all dragsters. He already has an idea of what it’s going to be, and he’s going to start on it as soon as he gets back home!
The Bikesters don’t have a lot of time to think about this win. They have to get right back to the pits and get RocketBike ready to face Jetasaurus.