The week before the hardback edition went to the printers I was out in Bonneville again with Matt Markstaller and the Triumph streamliner at Mike Cook’s Land Speed Shootout. We were hoping to get closer to the record than we had in my first time in it, but the week started off badly with a couple of days of rain. The salt dried out, but it left it very soft and bumpy and not good enough for top-speed record runs. Cars were running and causing big ruts in the track, making the salt look and feel like slushy snow, but I still wanted to get in the thing and build up my experience.
There were a few hold-ups with the streamliner. The FIM tech inspectors picked up on some stuff which held us up. When I asked if my first ride back in the thing could be with the training wheels bolted to the side, Matt told me I didn’t need them. I got there on Monday and the first run was Friday afternoon. We set off being towed to the end and in less than two miles I got cross-rutted, couldn’t keep it up and the streamliner went down on its side. It only caused cosmetic damage, but we lost a day checking it over. I was out in it the next morning again, but this time it wasn’t running right and took another day to sort out.
I’m not patient when I’m waiting for parts at Moody’s, but out there you have no choice but to be patient, so I wasn’t getting frustrated. You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs, it was just taking a bit longer to clean them up than anyone wanted.
I had one more run before we were set to go home. I accelerated away fine, but got caught in another rut, lost control and barrel-rolled the streamliner. I was alright, no bother, but the streamliner had some damage this time, the swingarm got bent, so it was game over.
We learned summat though: if the salt’s not perfect, there’s not a lot of point in being there, but I want to keep coming back. There is only a certain selection of people who are doing streamliner land speed records: Chris Carr, Rocky Robinson, Valerie Thompson. Who else has the knack? It’s a very small bunch of people and I want to be one of them. I want people to think, Get in touch with him, he’s not a messer.