In a few days’ time the fabled Bonneville Salt Flats in western Utah will echo to the sound of the world’s fastest motorcycles when this year’s annual Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials (BMST)
– scheduled to run from 23-28 August – get under way, but while the fearless riders will inevitably steal the headlines as they chase FIM-accredited Land Speed World Records, behind the scenes there is a group of unsung heroes tasked with arguably the most important job of all.
- Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats host annual FIM Land Speed World Records event
- Multiple categories cater for machines from 125cc up to 2997cc
- Chris Rivas to attempt FIM-accredited absolute Land Speed World Record
To the uninitiated, the discipline is all about the FIM-accredited absolute Land Speed World Record that has stood at 376.156mph (605.697km/h) since 2010 and while Chris Rivas, riding Denis Manning’s BUB Seven Streamliner, will attempt to break this during this year’s BMST the reality is there are many different records for a host of different capacities, engine configurations and styles of motorcycle on the line in Utah.
Takushi Chikakane will travel from his home in Japan to attempt to set an FIM-accredited record on his 125cc Honda-Dacapo while American Lisa Cipolla has her sights set on records in two different FIM divisions on a 600cc Kawasaki ZX6R.
Founder of the famous Broken Spoke Saloon and Museum, Arizona native Jay Allen is one of LSWR’s legendary names and he will be in action aboard his twin-cylinder 2000cc Harley-Davidson Dyna as he attempts to make more entries into the record books in two separate FIM divisions.
Competing with Chikakane for the honour of being the furthest-travelled competitor, Kim Krebs is travelling from her home in Australia on a mission to further cement her place in motorcycling historyon a 750cc Suzuki CSXR, while Canadian Liane Langlois – who has been a regular BMST competitor since 2014 – is aiming to set a new record on her three-cylinder 2500cc Triumph III Roadster.
The award for the most unorthodox choice of LSWR machinery could possibly go to Canadian Sylvain Ouellet who will attempt to go faster than any other person before him on a snowmobile with his three-cylinder 1000cc streamliner.
Torpedo-shaped streamliners are the most aerodynamic of all the machines that will be in action on the Bonneville Salt Flats so, naturally, in their bid to raise the FIM-accredited absolute Land Speed World Record to a mind-blowing four-hundred miles per hour (643.738km/h), Rivas and Manning’s weapon of choice is the BUB Seven Streamliner.
The monstrous 2997cc, turbo-charged V-four is the latest incarnation of the machine that in the hands of Chris Carr set new absolute records in 2006 and again in 2009 and Drag Racing champion Rivas, who in the past has walked away unhurt from a crash at almost one-hundred-and-eighty miles per hour (289.682km/h) on a highly-modified Harley-Davidson Road Glide, is remarkably calm and collected when talking about the inherent risks of defying the laws of physics in the iconic BUB Seven Streamliner.
“I barely fit in it,” he said. “You’re more laying all the way back in the seat with your feet forward in a very reclined position. You have a seven-point harness with a fire suit. To me it’s probably the safest form of racing I’ve done.”
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