Ack Attack in Bolivia

[Stayt`ie]

It will be interesting to see what the "Real" effect of altitude had on these speeds ,, Ralphs bike has gone 266 in the 1.3 miles of El'Mirage, and Al's just undergone a rebuild on the Honda, so the potential for faster speeds was always there,, I guess when thay run at Bonneville will answer my query,,

Not taking anything away, 286 on a 1000cc is akin to Bolt running an 8

[AuotonomousRX]

Ron, indeed it will be interesting to compare what happens at Bonneville this Year with this Event on a number of fronts ....


Pete

[DLRA]

From the Top 1 Ack Attack Facebook page

"We went 5,000 miles to one of more remote places on the planet in an attempt to raise the bar on our own record.
Time and logistical challenges prevented us from attaining our goal of surpassing the magical 400mph (643 kph) barrier on this last try but we still have the record and TOP1 will forever be remembered for having the guts to make the commitment to bring attention to perhaps the next venue for land speed racing.
Thank you to our general and leader Mike Akatiff. You are my mentor and inspiration. I cannot be more proud of the entire team. We didn't get our record but I feel very strongly we have a great story to share with the world"
-TOP 1 President, Joe Ryan
Some powerful words from our President, many more pictures and stories to come!

From another friends Facebook page

Top 1 Oil Top of the World Land Speed Challenge- The final day.

The day began with Nick Genet pushing the nitrous assisted Aprilia RSV4 to a naked (unfaired) FIM World record of 192 mph (pending ratification). It was a rather emotional moment as the record belonged to Andy Sills the late husband of Erin Sills who was working Mile 3 as a volunteer for Mike Cook. After completion of the run Nick rolled up to the Erin at the 3 and they shared the moment together.

The drama began to unfold in the 1000cc duel between Al Lamb and Ralph Hudson . Ralph's opening run was a stout 266 though just short of Al's record and elected to return to the pits.

Al's first run blistered the salt with a incredible 285 mph average!! With the sun low in the sky and time running out the Dallas Honda crew readied their bike for the return run. Meanwhile Ralph made another run towards the volcano.and the Ironwood Suzuki threw down a smoking run averaging 281 mph!

Al ran into a slight quartering headwind on his return run and mustered a tire spinning 274 putting the average speed just under 281. The Honda team arrived at the volcano end of the track just in time to see Ralph launch his return run. Sit down for this one.. 289 mph kilo, 287 mph mile for a 284 mile average!

Sadly Ack Attack experienced a handful of issues and Rocky reached a peak Speed of 378MPH prior to timing.

What a day of racing!! The event has concluded and we have torn down most of the race course and packed the container. Mike Cook, Dan Warner, Tommy Roberts, Bob Clark Jamie Williams and the Rice brothers put together a superb event!! Charles Hennekam (FIM Charlie) and his international contingent of officials worked hard and put some serious miles on vehicles ensuring the bikes met and followed Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) rules. I will update more with pics and vids.

Photo- the second and third fastest motorcyclists in history. Ralph Hudson and his bike, Al Lamb standing.

[hawkwind]

Interesting what deep pockets and altitude can produce. Seems the place for forced induction speed attempts . congrats to the participants

[Greg Watters]

Bolivia was an unreal experiance,
Took a couple of days to aclimatise to the altitude, not real comfortable during this time but ok once you got through it
Also took some getting used to on how it effected the bikes , EG Rocky going passed the pits with the pilot chute out but not enough air to fill it properly and pull out the main chute , and lots of other little things that plain caught you out , Even the local air traffic only flys in early morning or later at night

The temperature was another surprise, looking it up before leaving at -1 to 15c , ok just like here now i thought .... that was at the Uyuni airport
out on the salt with the heat all being reflected away and just about 0 moisture in the air it was a different story
In the sun it felt ok but shadow was cold, Working on Ralphs bike in the morning in flannel shirt quite comfortable in the sun but my drink bottle in the shade froze ,
First night there the bike has its water drained so not to freeze , but no one thought about the little bit left in the water pump , which resulted in a broken waterpump drive sahaft next morning
Put your phone down on the salt and it went flat real fast , same if you put it in an outside jacket pocket while riding (we hired some bikes to check out the scenery)
The salt crystals are big, gives a real rough texture on the surface
The locals use the salt as a highway to several "coastal" towns and say the tires wear twice as fast on salt than bitumen, judging by the black highways across the salt i think they underestimate the wear
And tires were the biggest issue to the bikes , Both Al and Ralph had problems just about every run, Ralph had 2 good tuns with nothing going wrong on the tires in the last 2 runs when we had 2 full slicks on , previous tires were cracking in the bottom of the tread each pass , and one earlier slick had an injury i thought looked like a physical injury , nothing major, but considering the speeds any fault and the tire was treated as unusable
The other challenge is getting stuff there and back , customs and logistics is a nightmare ,
Overall i am real glad i went and if they run there again I would like to try and get a bike there

[Greg Watters]

Few pics from Bolivia
Pic of the salt up close,

The nearest town Colchani in the foreground, salt motels near the salt entrance, Dakar monument where the road on the salt turns right
and first right takes you to the track, its 20 miles out

Dakar monument

Salt motel

[Greg Watters]

View from Cactus Island , track is right of centre 70 kms away

More super hard salt

The open bikes
Nick and Michael Aprilia

Al's

Ralphs

End of the day and new record (pending ratification )

[momec3]

Well that last pic is classic. The heavy hitters. Thanks for the incite Greg. We do choose a difficult sport.....

[Greg Watters]

Thanks Chris,
if i can get my phone and computer to talk to each other again i will add a few of the inside of the motel , the outside does not do it justice

And it looks like Bolivia 2018 is a very good chance of happening, and if so there will be a container going from Australia in May for a July meeting

[momec3]

Sounds like something that has to happen.

[Greg Watters]

MCN UK has released a video from the Al Lamb perspective , its covered a big 4 days very well

http://ow.ly/vd0a30fDHBv