Author Topic: "Private" meet -- Top Speed shootout!  (Read 505077 times)

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dwarner

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Re: "Private" meet -- Top Speed shootout!
« Reply #930 on: September 28, 2008, 05:20:01 PM »
"looks that the FIA (SCTA) guys at the salt didn't know not again there own rule book "

First of all Pork Pie, you know as well as I that the SCTA had nothing to do with this event.

Sounds like you need to unwad your panties and directly tell USAC and Betty Burkland that they do not qualify to hold the record. This is not a SCTA-BNI related issue.

Please let me know how that works out for you,

DW

DW

Offline maj

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Re: "Private" meet -- Top Speed shootout!
« Reply #931 on: September 28, 2008, 05:58:59 PM »
Thanks to all that contributed to this thread,   SSS,Jon A, Ray and many others,  live updates were nearly as good as being there (if i say that often enough i will believe it   :-D)  At least a huge improvement on getting a result sheet at the end of the meet. :cheers:


Offline Rocky R

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Re: "Private" meet -- Top Speed shootout!
« Reply #932 on: September 28, 2008, 10:18:43 PM »
Just got home from the Top One Shootout. Man, what a week! Mike Cook, Mike Junior, and the rest of the gang were outstanding... We had 12 miles of hard, fast salt. Started right next to hwy 80 and ran till the salt turned to mud on the other end. Kati and Dennis Maloney fed everyone hot grub each day (compliments of Top One) and Seldom Seen Slim and Nancy did the play by play until they had to leave. Ray the Rat never missed a beat from there on.

We pitted between the Nish liner and Leo Hess and his nitro burning billet V Twin racer. Leo and his crew were a lot of fun and it was such a shame to see Leo go down Thursday afternoon. I wish him all the best and hope they come back some day and continue their quest. Terry Nish was fun to talk to and I learned a lot just hanging around him for what little time we had.

My new best buddy is Tom Burkland. What a machine and what a guy. He let me take a peek inside his cockpit and told me I could climb in if I wanted to. I took a pass but thanked him for the invite. I heard that his 427 return run was at somewhere around half throttle because he couldn't get hooked up for whatever reason. Big horsepower and Tom's got big b___ uh, brains. Very smart guy... Betty, Gene and Rex were a wealth of information and they seemed to appreciate what we were doing on two wheels as much as the 4 wheel racers.

Sam Wheeler will always be my hero and he ran hard. 352 through the lights leaning dangerously askew. By the time he regained control he missed the second light but luckily kept her right side up. On the final day the stars aligned and the Ack Attack did what we all knew it could do. Two passes back to back over 360 mph. Both times the cockpit popped open on the right side and all I could hope for was that I too had enough b___ uh, brains not to screw things up. When it was over I hugged everyone and everything that had a pulse. Wow!

Then Sam got to go one more time. If anyone has the right stuff, it's Sammy. Mechanical problems put an end to his attempt just as they did to us in 2006 when we thought we had more to show. Ron Main and George Poteet were a lot of fun and worked their butts off just like us, changing engines and setting records. These guys are cool. Well...they did built a rubberband powered car but they're still cool in my book :-D...

The Mormon Missile was impressive and very fast. Sorry to see them catch fire and I wish their driver a speedy recovery. I talked to Terry over at the Buckeye Bullet headquarters. They didn't run till the last day due to a complete electric motor rebuild. They had a lot of down time and when I came by I noticed a hand lettered sign hanging from their welder: Will Weld For Beer. College guys...you know. Terry explained to me how that thing worked. I scratched my head and nodded intelligently and then left before he asked me any questions about what he'd just told me. They did get to run on Friday and it was cool to see them zoom down the salt making little to no noise.

Great meet, and I hope the first of many to come. Thanks to Mike Akatiff and the crew for everything they did. I get to ride the fastest motorcycle on the planet and they won't even let me work on it (except the parachutes). Thanks to Top One for all the promotional aspects of the event and again to Mike Cook and his gang for being the true professionals they are.

Hope to see you all next year!

Rocky Robinson

Offline isiahstites

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Re: "Private" meet -- Top Speed shootout!
« Reply #933 on: September 28, 2008, 10:32:42 PM »
Congrats Rocky! I really enjoy reading all of the things you write.

Scott

Offline 46champ

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Re: "Private" meet -- Top Speed shootout!
« Reply #934 on: September 28, 2008, 11:17:17 PM »
Rocky I guess with the statement see you next year that Mike isn't going to retire the liner after he gets the record.

Offline Rocky R

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Re: "Private" meet -- Top Speed shootout!
« Reply #935 on: September 28, 2008, 11:24:23 PM »
I don't have an answer for that. All I know is it was the time of my life and I enjoyed every minute of it, even if it turned my hair gray and probably gave Tricia ulcers.


Offline TURBO KING

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Re: "Private" meet -- Top Speed shootout!
« Reply #936 on: September 29, 2008, 04:37:36 AM »
Congrats Rocky.  Great job and great post.

Walt
RCC Super Ultra Kit
Harry's Case/Head Mods
Built, tuned, ridden and owned by me
635 honest rwhp, capable of more
244 mph at Maxton
Top Speed Overall Maxton 2007
Winner 2007 Super Streetbike Magazine Top Speed Shootout
Thanks Richard P, DaveO, Rick S

Offline Kansas Bad Man

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Re: "Private" meet -- Top Speed shootout!
« Reply #937 on: September 29, 2008, 08:35:52 AM »
 :cheers:

Hey Rocky,

I'm anxiously waiting for your next book.  "Flat Out" told it all.  My question is, what will be the title of your next book?  "The World's Fastest Motorcycle" title has already been taken. 

"The World's Fastest Motorcycle 2"?
 
and then?

You guys have done a great job, and getting to read about it is the frosting on the cake.
Whatever you title your next book I'm buying it!

                          Congrats,

                           Max 

Offline ack

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Re: "Private" meet -- Top Speed shootout!
« Reply #938 on: September 29, 2008, 09:13:00 AM »
Rocky did a great job and is a very talented motorcycle racer and a nice guy.

The Top 1 Ack Attack is officially retired but never say never.  If someone breaks our record in the near future we could run it again. 

To run against our own record has never made sense to me.  Motorcycle streamliners are dangerous complex beasts as recent events have demonstrated. A gust of wind, a piece of sharp debris on the track, a mechanical failure can put you on your head.


I would like to thank the many people that helped make this record a reality.

Top 1 Oil and the Ryan family which has been so supportive of us and land speed racing.

Mike Cook who has put together what can become a truly world class event.  Mike with the help many volunteers did a truly professional job of running the event and his effort and dedication to advancing land speed racing should be recognized.

Charlie Hennekam the FIM technical coordinator, Drew Gatewood the AMA/FIM Stewart and Ken Saillant the AMA sports director for making sure all the proper people and pieces were in place to certify the record. 

Our crew Ken Puccio, Frank Milburn, Jim True, Jim Leale, Greg Akatiff, and Chuck Bullwinkle. Yes we had Rocky and Bullwinkle on our team.

Ken Puccio a great welder and fabricator and Frank Milburn is a skilled machinist and designer.  Without their help the streamliner would have probably never been completed.

Mike Cook, Mike Jr, Glen Barrett, Jim Jensen, Dana Wilson, Tom Evens and all the SCTA volunteers who made us feel welcome and gave us their support when we showed up for the first time at Speed Week in 04.

Dick Lague and Ignition 3 who started following us and documented much of our effort and who along with Chet Burk produced The Worlds Fastest Motorcycle DVD. Dick along with John Stein published The Worlds Fastest Motorcycle Book.

Denis Manning who has been a huge supporter of land speed racing.

Jon Amo and Jon Wennerberg and Landracing.com

Tom, Gene and Betty Burkland for the encouragement and support they have given us.

Dave Dahlgren who built up the Motec systems we use and was either there with us or on the phone with us whenever we needed him.

If I named everybody Jon W would probably ban me from the site for using up too much bandwidth.

Mike Akatiff

Offline Dave Haller

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Re: "Private" meet -- Top Speed shootout!
« Reply #939 on: September 29, 2008, 09:46:18 AM »
Rocky and Ack,
Congrats on the record. Rocky, I know how you feel when they won't let you work on the car. That's happened to me on more than one occassion.

Offline Dean Los Angeles

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Re: "Private" meet -- Top Speed shootout!
« Reply #940 on: September 29, 2008, 10:24:43 AM »
Quote
If I named everybody Jon W would probably ban me from the site for using up too much bandwidth.

Mike Akatiff

Mike, I would name every last one of them. This topic has had over 20,000 views!

The excitement has been unparalleled in the history of LSR. For those of us that compete on a much smaller scale and work towards setting a record in a particular class, viewing the absolute record being broken in real time has been spectacular.

It takes a massive amount of work and an equal amount of salt/weather luck to even make the attempt. Mike and Rocky and the thousand other people that worked on the liner, the engine, the course setup, timing, inspection, all deserve congratulations on not only climbing the Mt. Everest of motorcycle records, but adding 10 mph to it!
Well, it used to be Los Angeles . . . 50 miles north of Fresno now.
Just remember . . . It isn't life or death.
It's bigger than life or death! It's RACING.

Offline Stainless1

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Re: "Private" meet -- Top Speed shootout!
« Reply #941 on: September 29, 2008, 10:46:03 AM »
Adding 10 is less than half of what Ack and Rocky added the last time they held the record.  Now they are 2 time holders of the fastest motorcycle record not to mention they unified the title....  :-D
OK, what I mean is they not only hold the record, but they also have the fastest motorcycle in the world.  Previously Sam had the fastest bike but Chris and Denis held the record.  Again congratulations to everyone, it is a tremendous accomplishment. 

We have witnessed Jon's Landracing.com dream.  While Jon A provided on the spot real-time coverage in the past, technology has taken us closer to the action, and this meet had the action to hold the attention of a lot of folks.  A lot of things have to come together for all of this to work.  Thanks again to the Jons, Nancy and RtR.
See ya on the salt  8-)
Stainless
Red Hat 228.039, 2001, 65ci, Bockscar Lakester #1000 with a little N2O

Offline Xea

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Re: "Private" meet -- Top Speed shootout!
« Reply #942 on: September 29, 2008, 11:32:28 AM »
Anyone have an address of the hospital Leo is in? I spoke to one of his crew members Friday night and he indicated Leo would be there 3 weeks to a month. I'd like to send him a card and think others would like to also.
Faster, till the thrill of Speed overcomes the fear of death.

Offline Jonny Hotnuts

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Re: "Private" meet -- Top Speed shootout!
« Reply #943 on: September 29, 2008, 11:47:41 AM »


Are these stickers available?
jonny_hotnuts@hotmail.com

"Sometimes it is impossible to deal with her, but most of the time she is very sweet, and if you caress her properly she will sing beautifully."
*Andres Segovia
(when Im not working on the car, I am ususally playing classical guitar)

Offline Glen

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Re: "Private" meet -- Top Speed shootout!
« Reply #944 on: September 29, 2008, 12:00:28 PM »
Decals are available from Jon W. at landracing.com
Glen
Crew on Turbinator II

South West, Utah