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 P102 RALPH HUDSON – NEVER GIVE UP R alph Hudson wasn't very visible in the pits at the Top of the World Land Speed Trial, as he was toil- ing in quiet frustration in his container day in and day out. It was Monday, the final day of the event, and Hudson had only made one success- ful run. It was a stunning one at 274 mph, enough to crush Lamb's record of 266 mph set on Sunday, but Hud- son's turbo-charged partially streamlined GSX-R1000- powered bike promptly over- heated, sending him back to the pits rather than making a return run for the record. "It has been quite a week," Hudson said. "The bikes were late. My luggage was late…" But like Lamb's plight, the arrival of his bike was merely the first of many obstacles to overcome. "When the bike did get here, it was still early morning and I thought I had drained the water, so I wasn't worried about things freez- ing. Unfortunately there was a little water in the water- pump and when I started the bike the first time, it broke the drive shaft to the water- pump. So the bike was over- heating. Fortunately I had a spare engine, and we were able to take the part out of that, got it running again, but after having all that apart, I think I didn't adjust the clutch just right—I was in a hurry— and we burned the clutch up first thing the next day. The clutch debris plugged up the oil filter and the oil pickup screen, so we had to pull the pan off the engine, clean it out, the oil filter, and the next time we started it, clogged (L-R) Mike Cook and world-record setters Al Lamb, Ralph Hudson and Nick Genet with event facilitator Andre Rodrigues and Top 1 Oil President Joe Ryan. son aborted the run. It was over. The turbo hoses gave out again, this time in a different place, evidence that the turbo was simply creating too much pressure in the thin air. "I had a real good ball of steam going and about three or four miles into it I smelled something," Robinson said. "I didn't know what it was and then all of a sud- den it lost power just like the time before. And we blew another part of the turbo off, a rubber connec- tor, and it wasn't the same one. "At first we thought that was something else fixable but then we found the tire was shredded on the right side. I'm not sure if that was from the turbo hose coming off, or it might have been Al Lamb's Honda CBR1000RR- based land-speed racer undressed. UNLIKE BONNEVILLE WITH A MAJOR U.S. CITY NEARBY, THERE ARE NO SUCH OPTIONS IN UYUNI. IF YOU DIDN'T BRING IT THERE, YOU WON'T FIND IT THERE.