Australian Motorcycle News - June 21, 2018

56 amcn.com.au

element of record shopping from the zillion classes
on offer, which is part of the game for the budget-
consciouslandspeedracer.
Special classes are set aside for pushrod engines,
which accounts for all the Harley-Davidsons. The
fastest is Corey Buttigieg’s silhouette bagger built
byGeelongHarleythatrunsarecord184mph,and
themoststylishisElliottAndrews’‘World’sFastest
Softail’ with 161mph, the first Milwaukee-Eight
enginetocompeteinlandspeedracing.
Special mention goes to veteran Mick Hite, who
adds his own aluminium partial streamlining
tohislong-suffering2006Buelltorun174mph,
almost 20mph up on his previous best.
Therearealsonumerousclassesforclassicand
vintage bikes, the latter providing one of the most
unlikely and closely fought duels of the week as
rookie Russell Diffey pits his 1923 Anzani against
veteranPeterBirthisel’s1926IndianAltoona(both
replicas built by Lindsay Urquhart). Peter holds the
non-streamlined record at 158mph but can find
only 154mph this year, and ‘The World’s Fastest
Russ’respondswithabestof155mphfromnine
runs.Insaltracingterms,Rustywinsthebattlebut
Pete retains the bragging rights.

Oneofthemanyvariablesoflandspeedracing
is the condition of the surface, which this year is
dry,hardandalittlecrustypriortobothtracks
beinggroomedwithalongmetalblade.Thesalt
canthenalterday-to-dayorevenduringtheday
with changes in cloud cover and humidity, which
affect traction.
Of more concern in 2018 is the wind, which starts
out strong and then comes and goes all week.
Sometimesitisstillatthestartlinebutblowing
whatfeelslikeagaledownthedeepend.
Manyofthefasterteamssitoutthefirstdayof
racing, which is a boon for the rookies, who get all
thepassestheyneedtoworkthroughqualifying.
Incredibly,some200runsaremadethatday
andsome850runsintotalfortheweek,recordsin
themselves.
Thecrowdisalsothebiggestever,boostedby
theappearanceoftwohigh-profilestreamliners
fromtheUS–onecar,onebike–bothwithgenuine
aspirations of setting new outright world land
speedrecords.Theydidn’tcomehalfwayaround
theworldforanythingless!
Although the official attempts would happen
astwo-wayaveragesonaspecial12-miletrack
duringtheFIMWorldSpeedsTrialsthefollowing
weekend, both are also keen to set some new

SPEED WEEK

Record shopping

from the zillion

classes on offer is

part of the game

for the budget-

conscious land

speed racer

Ready

reckoner

With its roots in the

US, land speed racing

is all about miles per

hour, never kilometres.

Here’s how fast they’re

really going.

75

100

125

150

175

200

225

250

275

300

325

350

121

160

201

241

281

321

362

401

442

482

523

563

MPH KM/H

1.Sherie Traeger

2. Mick Hite ran a best
   of 174mph on his partially
   streamlined Buell


3. The ‘World’s Fastest
   Russ’ – Russell Diffey


4. Martin Powditch and his
   Budget Busa


5. Richard Assen poses
   with his 227mph rocket


6. Elliot Andrews and the
   ‘World’s Fastest Softail’


7. Valerie Thompson heads
   out for her 328.467mph
   run in Team 7’s streamliner

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