Speed-Worldrecord 2007: Mission Completed!
8 World- and 8 American Records achieved by
Markus Saegesser and Ruedi Steck
(2000 to 3000 cc, with Charger)
None-streamlined: 242.801 km/h for the flying Kilometer,
241.675 km/h for the flying Mile.
«Partly Streamlined»: 251.896 km/h for the flying Kilometer,
251.875 km/h for the flying Mile.
RUEDI STECK with his CASTROL POWER 1 FEULING
(2000 to 3000 cc, none Charger)
None-streamlined: 241.534 km/h for the flying Kilometer,
240.216 km/h for the flying Mile.
«Partly Streamlined»: 242.851 km/h for the flying Kilometer,
242.736 km/h for the flying Mile.
The difference is that they actually did it.
Markus Saegesser hit 256 km/h on his fastest run.
Text: Rolf Lüthi (MOTO SPORT SCHWEIZ)
PHOTO: STEPHAN SCHACHER
Like the Egg of Columbus: in retrospect, lots of people will say they could have done it as well. But, as Columbus said to all those who envied him: “The difference, Gentlemen, is that although you might have been able to do it as well, I was the person who actually did it!” Now the press are saying that Markus Saegesser and Ruedi Steck went to Bonneville to plant the Swiss flag in the hallowed ground. In MOTO SPORT SCHWEIZ 18/07 we tell the story of how two Swiss enthusiasts decided to go for the World Motorcycle Speed Records, how they became advertising vehicles for the oil manufacturer Castrol and how they built the motorcycles and beefed up the performance.
Rusty garden fence
PHOTO: STEPHAN SCHACHER
Everything seemed to have been prepared down to the last detail when Markus and Ruedi and their team went to pick up their machines at the Bonneville Salt Flats on 2 September. But then they fell foul of something really pointless: the rules which are about the size of a telephone directory stipulate that the bike has to have a chainguard, which neither of the two machines had. The mechanic Livio Kägi and Sven Traber kept their cool and soon fashioned the required chainguards from a bit of rusty garden fence they got from a scrap yard in Bonneville.
Despite this stroke of genius, they ran out of time on Sunday. Not only because of the chainguards but also because the organiser of the Speed Trials had been overwhelmed by the rush: the previous year 157 drivers had registered, in 2007 some 352 drivers wanted to register for the world record attempts. But there was still only one record run and a small training run. This year the conditions were a lot worse than the previous year, the salt was soft and brittle after some short showers. What’s more the wind speed was over 3 miles an hour most of the time which meant that we couldn’t run the fully-faired Streamliner.
No hanging around
PHOTO: STEPHAN SCHACHER
On Monday morning Markus and Ruedi started to familiarise themselves with riding on salt on the training run. “I was quite shocked”, says Markus. “The salt is nowhere near as hard as concrete, it’s as soft as snow. The back wheel spins all the time. If you get into a roll in a soft patch or a groove in the track, you have to keep your nerve and just let the motorcycle drive itself. There were a lot of crashes where inexperienced riders tried to correct skids.”
Despite the difficult conditions Markus didn’t hang around: when he had the opportunity to do a run on the record run, he set a world record at the first attempt: 247 km /h! “When I did the re-run I played it safe”, reports Markus. The split showed 242 km/h, which was the world record for unfaired motorcycles with 2000 to 3000 cc and supercharged engine.
PHOTO: STEPHAN SCHACHER
Ruedi then got behind the steering stem and – guess what? – set another world record! 241 km/h for unfaired motorcycles with 2000 to 3000 cm' and aspirated engine. It was very rare for a new rider to set a world record on his first run. Denis Manning, organiser and builder of the world’s fastest streamliners, went over to the two Swiss to congratulate them.
PHOTO: STEPHAN SCHACHER
Despite the poor conditions, the Ack Attack team with driver Rocky Robinson made an attempt on the absolute world motorcycle record (565 km /h) but the ‘bike got into a spin and crashed. Robinson was unhurt but the motorcycle was a complete write-off.
We could have gone even faster
PHOTO: HORST RÖSLER
On Tuesday the racing had to be abandoned because of the wind, on Wednesday our Swiss made another attempt, this time with attached half-shells in the “Partly Streamlined” class. Markus also notched up this world record with 251 km/h on the first run but he wanted to go faster and decided to put a bit of extra weight at the rear to stop the rear wheel spinning. But the weight put too much strain on the ‘bike and Markus couldn’t get into fourth or fifth gear, so the attempt failed.
PHOTO: STEPHAN SCHACHER
Ruedi was unlucky with the weather: on the record course he couldn’t do the re-run because the wind was picking up strongly by the evening.
Thursday, last chance for Ruedi to break the record with the half-clad motorcycle. But the man from Dietlikon kept calm and did a 242 km/h split – another record! Markus, on the other hand, was slowed down by sparkplug problems. Notwithstanding the delays, in the space of one month some eight world and four American records had been broken by two Swiss riders. So.
“My motorcycle still had enormous potential”, says Markus. “At the start our gear ratio was too slow, the engine was barely hitting 3000 revs/min. Once we had adjusted the gear ratio I couldn’t get into the higher gears because of the weight and afterwards the engine was only running on one cylinder.” So they’ll have to go back next year ... and maybe the salt will be better?
PHOTO: HORST RÖSLER
World Speed Records: The Rules
Apart from the famous, almost mystical Benneville Salt Flats there is another place where people can set speed records. Fritz Egli/Urs Wenger set their 1987 record on the high speed oval track at Nardo in Sicily (272.41 km/h for 10 km from a standing start).
In Bonneville world motorcycle records can only be attempted at designated Speed Trials (pure motorcycle event) because the FIM officials are only present at these events. At other events cars and motorcycles sometimes run at the same time and people can try to set national records. The prepared course is 17 km long and in the middle there are the light barriers that measure one kilometre and one mile. In other words record attempts are made with a flying start and on each run the kilometre and the mile record are attempted at the same time. In order for a record to be valid the participants have to complete a run in both directions and the average speed is the final speed used. In order to beat the world record your average speed has to be at least 1 % faster.
352 riders took part in the 2007 Speed Trials. The riders entered in a wide range of different categories, classes and sub-classes. There are fully-clad Streamliners, half-faired and naked motorcycles, engine capacity classes from 50 to 3,000 cm³ and supercharged and non- supercharged engines.
