My fascination with the motorcycle land speed record grew while running The Blue Flame on the Salt Flats in 1970, watching Don Vesco set the FIM record at 251.66 miles per hour, followed days later by Denis Manning?s Harley-Davidson, ridden by Cal Rayborn, to 254.84 miles per hour. The whole Honda Hawk design and construction took place in about six months in 1971. American Honda was interested in the FIM record and asked Pete and me to build a bike to race that year. The results were a one way run in 1971 at 286.7 miles per hour and, in 1972, an AMA class record of 232.7 miles per hour. Not too shabby, eh? Arriving on the Salt Flats in late September, it immediately became apparent I had screwed up the steering geometry. A four-bar link design was employed to try and keep the steering structure rigid at design speeds over 300 miles per hour. While the Honda Hawk did fall over a few times at low speeds, compared to Manning?s tank-slappers in 1970, it didn?t look too bad. By the time Rayborn set his record with the Harley it could have been called the Duct Tape Special. Manning and Rayborn stuck with it and won! After getting some front bearing part numbers on the phone from Don Vesco (a really great guy) we quickly redesigned the steering using a ?center-point? design. It never fell after that in 1971. Don Vesco was unselfish sharing this crucial design information. I am forever grateful to him.
