Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/863949
FEATURE TOP OF THE WORLD LAND SPEED TRIAL AUGUST 3-8, 2017 SALAR DE UYUNI / UYUNI, BOLIVIA P94 Immediately the team began experi- encing problems with the streamliner, problems that didn't exist when it was loaded into the container. "The brakes worked fine when we left San Jose, we got here it had no brakes," said Akatiff. "And nobody touched the brakes—nobody did anything. So we don't know what hap- pened there." Along with troubleshooting and prepping the bike, the team had to work through altitude tuning, as was expected. Another new aspect on the Ack Attack was the addition of the rear doors. Two electronically controlled rear doors that come to a point at the rear of the streamliner showed a significant improvement in aerodynam- ics in the wind tunnel, but how it would handle at speed remained to be seen. Sunday morning Rocky Robinson was ready for his shakedown run in the Ack Attack. The team got a couple of runs in throughout the day, and worked through setup issues, but not without an incident that left the liner on its side. "I WISH THE CONTAINERS WOULD HAVE BEEN HERE EARLIER. BUT IT'S OUT OF OUR CONTROL. WE'VE COME TO A FOREIGN COUNTRY. IT'S BEEN CHALLENGING, YOU MIGHT SAY." (Clockwise from top) This marked the first time the Ack Attack ran with its rear doors in place—a significant improvement in aerodynamics. Andre Rodrigues of Brazil was key in instrumenting the first-ever South American world land-speed trial. Akatiff wasn't happy to leave Bolivia without a new world record, but time will tell if the team will be back. breaking the 400-mph barrier, the three other teams that accompanied Akatiff to the Top of the World Land Speed Trial each made their marks in the world record books, bringing an air of gratification to the pioneering effort—the first-ever world land-speed event in South America. ACK ATTACK Late Friday night, the lights of a big rig lumbering down the dirt road toward the Palacio de Sal hotel was a wel- come sight for Akatiff. His container had finally made it off the ship, through customs, over the Andes and across the Chilean border into Bolivia. Now was when the true race began as the team rushed to get the Ack Attack to the salt and ready to run. cont. on page 98