Last year during Speed Week I called to see how the Vincent's were doing. In that conversation I was told that the Vintage records of the Mal Hewitt and Terry Prince teams were stripped of there records for not running a standard Vincent head. Is this true, anybody know?
Max,
It is partially true as far as I know. I think that Mal was protested at SCTA in the MV-G class. I confirmed from someone that was there that the record was disallowed because of the combustion chamber. This was done because someone else protested him. Mal also ran in the Partially streamlined vintage class, but was not protested, so the record still stands.
Max knows this well, but for the benefit of others, all sanctioning bodies use SCTA rules as the basis of their own rules. Unfortunately, the rules vary from organization to organization. Without getting in the weeds, SCTA vintage rules require original heads, cylinders and cases. Replacement parts can be allowed but they must be pre-approved and made to the exact same specification (no extra finning, no beefy bearing journals, etc.) With the head off, the cast in squish band in Terry's head was obviously not stock. Just to complicate things, you can weld in a squish band, but the part has to be stock or stock specification when you start. Documentation is required.
The rules at the BUB Speed Trials are different. The AMA is the sanctioning body. Often a competitor builds the bike to meet one class in one organization. They enter the bike in another event that they did not build for and hope that things go well, but it gives them more salt time and data and maybe a record.
David