'69-'72.. The most historical years there will ever be for a Harley riding Land Speed Enthusiast, or at least for this one(bigger then the Easyriders Streamliner 322mph record IMO).
Leo Payne was first in 1969 with an 80"(92%) Nitro Ironhead Sportster at 202mph. Outstanding feet considering all these guys then were being started by a car door handle, not to mention that Leo only had one gear in that bike. Warner Riley is kind of my hero of all that racing(and still is today and always will be actually) due to his accomplishments, especially that of building a sportster motor the way he did. He built many motors back then that carried some of these men(including himself) over 200mph in both open wheel bikes and streamliners.
In 1971 Warner had decided to get himself in the 2-club and by 1972 had captured the fastest openwheel bike record at 206mph with a 212mph exit speed on an Ironhead sportster.
Man.. that would have been a time to have been at Bonneville. Leo Payne, Warner Riley, George Smith, Don Baker, Cook Neilson, Dennis Manning, Tony Murphy, Dick O'brien, Don Vesco, Bud Hare, Rodger Jansen and I'm sure I missed some. After all this was about the time Carl Morrow was getting up there in speed and Scott Guthrie was coming on scene... which is an era I'm glad to see a little bit of first hand here on the East Coast as they are both still racing.. as was Warner Riley until last year(made my day the couple hours I got to talk to him in my pits and him truly compliment a little old ironhead I'm building). And Scott, well although he's gone Japanese on us.. he's still out there and faster then anyone of his era on a situp bike(and most of this era as a matter of fact). I think maybe he's afraid to get one of them old harley's out though, which I've heard he never got rid of.
TD
