Pic: Jean Turner / FIM
Pic: Jean Turner / FIM
do about that, just get ready to run!
While the course and timing lights were being set up
the FIM officials, Charles Hennekam and Andres Salazar,
were busy inspecting out bikes.
The course had been scraped by road graders and per-
haps had been moving too fast, creating a lot of chatter
marks. Mike Cook dragged it but couldn’t fully get rid of
the washboard bumps.
I think that perhaps Erin ran first, I was next. It was
Friday, July 13.
My first run was 291mph, 7mph above the record,
but 9mph under the 300 that I was looking for. The bike
was geared to go quite a bit faster, but there was just too
much wheel slip on the wet salt.
I was disappointed, yet people were reminding me
that it was the fastest mile ever recorded at an FIM sanc-
tioned event. When you have goals in mind, and don’t
get them, it’s disappointing!
The return run was about the same, we came away
with a new world record. Fastest sit-on bike ever - at
291.129 mph.
It was better than not getting a record at all and doing
it on the first two runs really is a great accomplishment
... just not quite as good as what I was pushing for. I
quietly downloaded data from the bike and took the com-
puter back to the hotel.
Made of salt blocks, the hotel was nice but always cold.
The place smelled of wood smoke, the chimneys didn’t
draw very well, and the fireplaces were the main source
of heat for the common areas.
The meals were repetitious; rice, pasta, cooked banan-
as, chicken. I think there was llama and definitely hot
dogs. It was filling, if not exciting. The best part was sit-
ting around the tables and talking with members of the
other teams, getting to meet new people, joking about
the food, talking about how our days had gone and what
we were planning for tomorrow.
We normally had breakfast and dinner, we were too
busy for lunch, plus nothing was being served out on
the salt. Some had the foresight to stuff a few extra rolls
in their pockets. We had water and protein bars in our
container, we avoided starvation.
The weather was cold, yet not as cold as the previous
year. It didn’t seem to freeze overnight, and I think the
daytime temperature got up to about 10 degrees Celsius.
The following day, Saturday, we did a little better.
A 291 down and a 297 return, bumped the record to
294mph. Not good enough yet, but we were getting a lit-
tle better. Late in the day, we ran again. The entry speed
on the down run was 299mph with the mile speed at 297.
I thought we had a chance! On the return run the wind
had come up to 7mph, I couldn’t keep the bike on the
course and had to shut it off.
TRAVERSE 14