Hi Y'all!
My name is David (Dave) Smalley. I'm 65, from The Bahamas, currently live in Homestead Florida (Just below Miami), and was introduced to Land Speed Racing at about 8 years old by my neighbor. You can believe that I completely wore out the pages of the magazines that he gave me about The Green Monster and The Blue Flame.
I know a bit about motorcycles and telescopes as I've built and repaired a few. Currently ride a 97 Honda Valkyrie, am refurbing a 76 Yamaha XS 360, and when it is done and sold will concentrate my efforts on my 75 Yamaha RD 350 basket case. I live about 5 miles from the Homestead Speedway and think I will build the RD 350 as a track bike, with the silly hope that I might somehow be able to get it out on the salt someday.
I've never been to a land speed event. I rode a FXRT around the four corners in 1996 (13,800 miles solo in 54 days) and when I was running south from Renton (Hendrix's Grave) considered popping over to Wendover for a quick look, but a cute lady in San Diego's invitation distracted me.
Now that I'm closer to the end than the beginning one of my main bucket list items is to go spectate at Bonneville at least once. Last year's 5,000 mile month long run around the east on my Valkyrie put me into a deep enough hole that I probably won't make it out there until 2023, but if there's any way I can pull it off I hope to join y'all this year.
I bought the three rulebook package and have read through most of last year. I later stumbled on this resource that is almost identical wording;
https://americanmotorcyclist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/AMA_2022-RULEBOOK_PRINT.pdfI cracked up when I realized that if I ever do get the ability to compete that my personal safety gear upgrade will probably cost more than my RD 350. A friend of a friend in Virginia gave it to me, but it cost $600 to get it home.
Thank you all for all you do. Go fast, don't die.
DAVe
