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 P96 AL LAMB – CHAOTIC SERENDIPITY "T his was the original container," Al Lamb said, pulling up a picture on his phone of a 40-foot High Cube container clean enough to be an operat- ing room. In a deep voice with a slight southern drawl the Dallas Honda dealer explained that his container adorned with two land-speed dream machines—twin partially faired turbo-charged Honda CBR1000RR motorcycles— had been unceremoniously downsized to a single bike crate after it failed to ship from Houston. From there it went to Miami to be put on a plane for La Paz, but that also somehow went awry. On the opening day of the Top of the World Land Speed Trial, Lamb was anxiously awaiting the bike's arrival at the hotel in Uyuni, but then received word that his crate had been seized by customs, and was still in Miami. After five weeks of trying to ship his materials, the bike hadn't even left the country—an infuriating reality that left Lamb to consider that his bike might not arrive at all. Yet a day and a half later, Lamb was uncrating his turbo-charged CBR1000RR on the salt. But getting the bike to Uyuni was only the first challenge the Texan would have to face throughout the week. His first run revealed that the bike wasn't getting any boost, challenging the team to figure out why. Fortunately renowned engine tuner Scott Horner was along for the Bolivia trip, and offered to take a stab at the problem. "If we wouldn't have had Scott here we would have been lost," Lamb said. "But he finally diagnosed that it was a boost controller." Fellow racer Ralph Hud- son, who would go on to be Lamb's direct competi- tion that week, had a spare boost controller and gave it to Lamb. "We got one, put it on, and it still didn't work. But Scott's the one that figured out that theirs plumbed backwards from ours. Once we turned it around every- thing worked fine." The team seemed on their way at that point, but another complication arose when Lamb's technician Randy Del Greco suddenly dropped to his knees. Stung by the altitude Randy spent the rest of the day with med- ics, leaving Lamb's crew a man down. But through another stroke of fate, help arrived in the form of adventure riding Australians who happened by the event. Mick Essex who was touring South America aboard his BMW GS, was promptly handed a wrench, and jumped in to assist the team. On Sunday, Lamb made his first run at a record- qualifying speed of 265 mph—enough to qualify for a new world record. "The only issue was about a mile before the measured mile, I knew the tire was coming apart because it was spitting rubber at me," Lamb explained. "So we had to go back and change a tire in addition to doing the normal turnaround. We did that and we prob- ably rolled off about five minutes before sunset. "I put tape across the top of my shield thinking that would block the sun out, well it totally blocked my line of sight! I was riding with the shield open; it kept flopping down. I ended up in fifth gear riding with one hand, with my elbow on the intercooler holding the shield up with my thumb, and I thought, 'Well this probably isn't good.' So I just let it go down and rode the measured mile sitting up and we went 266." It was enough to set a new world record at 265.849 mph. Against all odds it seemed, Lamb had pulled off the impossible. Lamb and his Dallas Honda crew reveled in the victory that night, even though his record would be broken the next day. But even so, Lamb will always be the first to ever record a world land-speed record in South America. (Above) Scott Horner stepped up to help Al Lamb sort out his boost controller. Al Lamb waits for the all clear.