P118
CN
III CROSS-RUTTED
BY JEAN TURNER
T
en years ago I was a new
associate editor at Cycle
News, and received my first
major assignment: cover the Inter-
national Motorcycle Speed Trials
at the Bonneville Salt Flats. I knew
pretty much nothing about land
speed racing and had no idea
what type of people I would en-
counter on the salt. But an incred-
ibly friendly community welcomed
me from the moment I stepped
foot on the salt, where I quickly
learned a lot about this exception-
al niche. Most notably, I learned
it takes a hell of a lot more than
a handful of throttle to go fast. It
takes keen intelligence, cunning,
patience, precision, engineering
capability and the tireless tenac-
ity to break through barriers (Oh,
and money. Lots of money!). This
skillset typically comes from a
team, but in Sam Wheeler's case,
all those qualities manifested in
one remarkable man.
The two big teams were
the Akatiff camp fielding Mike
Akatiff's "ACK Attack" liner, and
the Manning camp with Denis
Manning's "Lucky Number 7"
liner. While there was evident
tension between the two teams,
no one had anything but praise
for Sam Wheeler, regarded as the
"privateer effort" of the two-wheel
land-speed racing elite.
"Wait until Sam gets here." "Sam
Wheeler will be a real contender in
this." "Sam is a great guy. His mo-
torcycle is absolutely impeccable!"
I suspected they were just
being nice to this guy since they
didn't see him as a real threat. I
was completely wrong.
The events of the week played
out in remarkable fashion—thanks
to the "30 year salt" that set the
perfect stage—with the ACK At-
tack shattering the world record
on day one at 342.797 mph. Man-
ning's team broke it again the next
day with a record of 350.884.
Next up was Wheeler who had his
UNCHARTED TERRITORY
Interviewing Sam
Wheeler after his
wreck in 2006
at the Bonneville
Salt Flats.
