WETASKIWIN - A brief comment captured the essence of a shoestring-budget, speed-record attempt.

"There we were at Bonneville, sitting beside a race team that probably had $1 million or $1.5 million behind them," Ross Metcalfe tells an attentive audience at the Reynolds-Alberta Museum, "and we overheard one of their guys say, 'Remember the old days when we used to hand grind our own cams, then heat temper them?'

"And one of our guys says quietly, 'That's what we did.' "

"Our total budget, including buying the bike (which was a collection of parts in boxes) was $7,800! One of our big purchases was $30 for a new tarp," Metcalfe recounts.

As part of the Life & Times of the Motorcycle exhibit lecture series, the Reynolds-Alberta Museum invited Metcalfe to tell the story of how he and three close friends (Siggi Klann, Gary MacDonald and Ted Hector) purchased a "basket case" 1938 Indian Junior Scout with a 500 c.c. flathead V-twin engine. In less than a year, the ragtag group of 50-something vintage motorcycle lovers restored and hot-rodded the motorcycle, trucked it to Bonneville and established a land-speed record.

Thunder Road Racing Team's astonishing success on a shoestring budget is the result of more than dumb luck. The four Winnipegers are all experienced motorcycle restorers -- notably Hector who owns Thunder Road motorcycle shop and Metcalfe, who has restored antique bikes for more than 30 years.

The foursome drew upon their decades of mechanical and restoration experience and dedicated many hours of labour to transform a whimsical notion dreamed up over a few beers into a record-breaker.

How many hours did they spend building the race bike? Metcalfe answers: "Gee, I don't know. I never thought about it. Let's see, we spent eight hours machining a sprocket ... we must have put in more than 1,000 hours."

From the outset, Metcalfe says the team was determined to shave 45 pounds off the bike to get it down to a 300-pound race weight. Some of the weight savings were achieved by swapping iron for aluminum heads (saving five pounds), an aluminum transmission saved another five pounds, and using an engine-driven magneto. With highly-modified heads and homemade camshafts, the Indian was ready for its first test in May 2005. On an isolated road outside Winnipeg, Ted Hector, the designated test-rider ("because he's the only one of us who weighs less than 200 pounds," laughs Metcalfe) ran the 67-year-old Indian up to an astonishing 78 m.p.h., revving the flathead engine to more than 7,000 r.p.m.

On its third test session, the antique racer suffered a catastrophic failure. At 97 m.p.h. (and still accelerating!), the rear swingarm broke. Recounts Metcalfe, "This is a 40 m.p.h. (original top speed) bike now doing almost 100 m.p.h." The broken swing arm caused the transmission to drop down onto the pavement. Amazingly, Hector "rode it out," maintaining control of the machine while the transmission ground itself for 200 metres on the asphalt.

"The good news was we saved some more weight by doing that," Metcalfe explains. The swing arm was repaired and reinforced, and in September 2005, the Thunder Road Racing Team drove to the Mecca of speed junkies, the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

There, veteran Salt Flats racers generously offered the rookie team tips on how to get more speed. For instance, Hector was advised to lay his helmet on the gas tank instead of looking over the tachometer, and to put his feet higher on the footpegs, pulling his toes out of the air stream. These subtle changes helped him eke out another two m.p.h.

On Sept. 6, 2005, Hector ran the two required back-to-back one-mile runs, coaxing the little hot-rod Scout to an average 78.163 m.p.h., establishing a new AMA National Land Speed Record in the Modified Vintage Gasoline 500 c.c. motorcycle class. The Canadians broke the old record by a healthy five m.p.h. margin. Now, the record-breaking Scout sits proudly on display inside the Metcalfe residence.

What's the next project for the Thunder Road Race Team? Metcalfe says the band of four, all of whom love the old flathead engines, are contemplating another land-speed record assault, this time using a Harley-Davidson 45 cu. in. flathead V-twin, "the slowest engine known to mankind." With the team's uncanny ability to transform a dog-slow antique motorcycle into a land-speed record- breaker, you can bet a sequel to the Manitoba Miracle will soon follow.