“This is why you never give up,” said Jim Cole.
Day 4 of the 2021 Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials was a true test of fortitude for the new FIM Land Speed World Record setter. Cole feared that his race week was over on Day 2 when he discovered a bent valve in his turbocharged Hayabusa. But thanks to camaraderie, teamwork and a generous land-speed racing community, Jim Cole found the parts and the technical support he needed on the salt, and found his way back to the starting line on Day 4. After dealing with a windy morning and working through some tuning issues, Cole was able to put down a scorching qualifying run of 211 mph (340 km/h) and back it up with a 212-mph run (342 km/h) to seal the record in the 1600 non-streamlined (naked) turbocharged classification. (All records are provisional, pending FIM ratification.)
“We’re pretty excited. It was a super long couple of days,” said Cole. “After having front-wheel problems and flat tires and then blowing up a motor, my good buddy Scott Horner, who actually built and designed the whole bike, came through, as always. He’s a super human being. Mike Garcia and Erin Okonek provided the parts to make it all happen. Ryan Sims, Jim Higgins, the list goes on and on. It’s super humbling.”
The record that Jim Cole claimed on Day 4 previously belonged to Scott Horner, the very man who spent the entire previous day resurrecting Cole’s Hayabusa engine.
“No place but here do you see that,” said Cole. “We do all kinds of racing. This is where people are at their best, for sure. We’re super happy.”
The second FIM Land Speed World Record from Day 4 goes to Tyrell Marlow, who now claims his second FIM record this week. After earning his first on Day 1 aboard his Suzuki TL1000R, Marlow switched his attention a very different machine—a Ducati 999-powered turbocharged partially streamlined sidecar motorcycle.
Marlow explained how he came to race such a unique machine. “My cousin Jaron Tyner got me into land-speed racing a few years ago. Then we found some open records and came up with a plan. Jaron’s been building this from the ground up with the idea to make it highly modular. We can take things off, put things on relatively easily, change classes. We read the rules, found out what we could and couldn’t do, and let it rip!”
So far, their plan is working quite well. On the same machine, Marlow claimed the FIM Land Speed World Record with two passes averaging 89 mph (144 km/h), then turned around and earned the AMA class record, all on Day 4. Tomorrow they have two more plans of attack: “Jaron will hop on it tomorrow and do the naked class, so we’ll change take the bodywork off,” Marlow said. “And with any luck, we’ll put Nick Genet on there without the sidecar for another FIM record.”
Racers only have a few hours of competition time remaining, with a half-day on Day 5 concluding the 2021 Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials. While several competitors such as Hiro Koiso, Mike Garcia, Jim Cole and Takushi Chikakane plan to make the most of the final hours with early morning runs, for many others their week has already concluded.
Bo Miller has wrapped up his week, and while he may not have claimed a record, he managed a personal best and achieved a long-held goal: a top speed of 150 mph (241 km/h) aboard his Triumph T-100 Bonneville.
The action continues on the Bonneville Salt Flats in the morning of September 2 for the final hours of 2021 BMST. With any luck, the FIM Land Speed World Record competitors will end the event on a high note with more records in the books.
Text and photos by Jean Turner