Springsteen had dropped by the Daytona pits in 2002 to talk to XR tuning guru Carl Patrick who was working on Hourglass Racing’s two XRTT racers. When ‘Springer’ off-handedly said, "I’d race one of those," team owner Keith Campbell quickly took him up on his offer.

The Hourglass team spent the next eleven months building a new XRTT for Springsteen to race, finishing the bike in February just three weeks before Daytona Vintage Week. The Formula 750 race was run in the rain and ‘Springer’ won, prevailing over his good friend Gary Nixon aboard an M3 Racing CR 750 Honda.

After that came races at Sandia, Barber Motorsports Park, Road Atlanta and Mid-Ohio. ‘Springer’ won repeatedly in both the F750 and Formula Vintage classes, sometimes going four for four in a single weekend, and when he didn’t win it was because his Hourglass teammate Tim Joyce got his XRTT to the line first.

The Hourglass XRTT racers have to be seen to be believed, and its no wonder that Jay offered to race one. The design, build quality, attention to detail and finish of the machines is to concourse standard. Then again, this shouldn’t come as a surprise since the bikes are built and maintained by Joe Brown, who is also the curator and bike restorer at Campbell’s Vintage Memories Museum (www.vintagememoriesinc.com) in Georgia.

The frame employed is an exact replica of the original factory racer item, and was built by top frame fabricator Terry Knight sometime in the late seventies. Hourglass have experimented with fork angle and swing arm length, and arrived at a combination that yields quicker steering while maintaining high speed stability. The swing arm is about an inch longer than the factory original and is fabricated from box-section tubing.

The front end employs Forcella Italiana forks (a.k.a. Ceriani) with billet triple clamps, while the rear suspension is by Ohlins twin shocks. Braking is by triple disc Grimeca callipers fitted with Ferodo pads. The brakes employ calliper mounts and brake rotors that are custom made in Georgia. The rear brake on ‘Springer’s’ bike is thumb-actuated using a small lever on the inside of the left clip-on.

Since vintage races are typically run over a distance of 30-40 miles Hourglass use smaller fuel tanks than the originals. Fabricated by Evan Wilcox in California, they have a capacity of about two gallons, and allow for a more comfortable and tucked in riding position.

The XRTT motors employed in the bikes are all assembled and tuned by Carl Patrick at his race shop in Xenia, Ohio. Most of the internals are stock factory items, but each engine is blue-printed and very precisely put together. Carburation is by twin 38mm Mikunis fitted with very large K&N air filters located on the right side of the bike. The exhaust system employs a dual high-rise set of pipes by Supertrapp with baffled megas exiting down the left side of the bike.

The peak rear-wheel horsepower of the engines is 86 bhp at 8000 revs measured on a Dyna-Jet dynamometer. Peak torque is 70 ft.lbs. at 7100 rpm. Meaningful power starts at around 5000 revs and a red line of 8000 rpm is usually observed, but if race conditions warrant the the engine can handle the occasional run to 9000 revs. Carl Patrick has said that he can get 100 bhp out of the engines should the need arise. So far it hasn’t.

Contrary to expectations, the XRTTs have a very light clutch and very smooth power delivery over a 3000+ rpm power band. This makes them very rideable, despite the disadvantage of running with a four-speed gearbox. The bikes have proven to be both quick off the line and quick out of the corners.

Spingsteen reportedly gets a good 5 mph jump on most competitors coming off of corners by letting the back end move around while he whacks the throttle wide open. Kid’s stuff for a champion flat tracker. He then builds on this speed advantage all the way to the next corner, lap after lap.

The handling of the Hourglass XRTTs has been described as quick, responsive, neutral and stable. No surprise here when one considers that the bikes have a wet weight of about 345 pounds and a wheelbase of 53-54 inches. These are actually modern day GP racer class figures, for a vintage Harley road racer!

The fiberglass bodywork employed on the bikes is made by Schaffer Products in North Carolina, and custom fitted for each rider. The fairing is sleek, but fairly wide and affords the rider full coverage on long straights. Top speeds vary by circuit, with the gearing set for a top end in the high 130s at tracks like Mid-Ohio, and 145-150 mph on the high banking at Daytona. Not bad for a thirty year old design!