Fla. motorcycle racer dies after hitting 285 mph

LIMESTONE, Maine — A motorcycle racer trying to top 300 mph died Sunday after losing control and zooming off a runway at a former air base in northern Maine.

Bill Warner, 44, of Wimauma, Fla., was clocked at 285 mph before he lost control but it was unclear how fast the motorcycle was traveling when it veered off the paved runway and crashed, said Tim Kelly, race director the Loring Timing Association, which hosted "The Maine Event" at Loring Air Force Base.

Warner was conscious and talking after the crash just before 10 a.m., Kelly said, but he died about an hour and 15 minutes later at a hospital in Caribou.

"No one will touch Bill's achievements or be the type of racer he was. He was a personal friend and the land-racing community is less for his loss," Kelly said.

Riding his modified turbocharged Suzuki Hayabusa, Warner previously hit 311 mph on the same course in 2011, using 1.5 miles of pavement. That's considered to be the world land speed record for a conventional motorcycle, Kelly said.

This time he was trying to hit 300 mph using just a mile of pavement, and he'd made several passes before the one in which he crashed, Kelly said.

The Maine Event is an annual timed speed event that utilizes the 14,200-foot-long runway at the former Strategic Air Command base that closed in 1994. The Loring Timing Association uses 2.5 miles of the runway for its events, and there's an additional buffer of 2,000 feet, Kelly said.

On Sunday, about 400 spectators watched as Warner began veering right after passing the 1-mile mark, traveling upright for another 2,000 feet before exiting the runway and crashing, Kelly said.

The remainder of Sunday's event was canceled. The Limestone Police Department and Maine State Police were investigating the crash.

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SOurce: Yahoo News (AP, 7/15)

Charge

For over a hundred years, riders throughout the world have ridden Man TT's hills and curves with high speed and glory. Our recent global awareness has pushed society to new dreams and challenges in perfecting an Eco friendly way to live, including our motorcycles.

In June 12, 2009 to what some considered blasphemy, others consider it history as the first ever zero emission grand Prix roamed free in Man TT.

The new documentary, "Charge," which recently released, captures the dreams and visions of obsessed riders, engineers, and businessmen, as each set a high speed record in the electric motorcycle world.

In our previous blogs, Brandon Miller(a.k.a Electric Cowboy) attempted to set an electric Motorcycle speed of 100 mph.

Miller actually ended up with the record of 101.652 mph.

The highest speed record is recently held by Lightning Motorcycles at 215 mph.

At the fast rate technology is improving we wouldn't be surprised for a higher speed record to be set anytime soon.

"Charge captures a pivotal moment in motor sport history: the dawn of the zero-emissions racing era. It came on June 12th 2009, the day of the world’s first zero-emissions motorcycle grand prix. The race took place on the Isle of Man TT course, the most demanding and deadly circuit on the planet. The film begins in early 2009 amid the hectic preparations for the race and concludes over a year later at the 2010 TT Zero. The second race sees a huge leap in performance – proof that racing really does improve the breed and that maniacs on motorcycles can be a force for global good. We follow the fortunes of several teams in the run-up to the 2009 race and on their return in 2010, from swaggering US hotshots MotoCzysz to shoestring Anglo-Indian contenders Team Agni and local heroes ManTTx Racing. Charge is the dramatic and highly entertaining inside story of an unlikely group of pioneers – obsessed visionaries, ambitious businessmen, new-tech eccentrics, government ministers and hardcore racers – from as far afield as India, the USA, Germany and Britain. It’s a human story as well as a technological one: the teams’ hopes for personal glory and commercial success ride on their green machines. It’s about the dream of a clean, green world. It’s about the dream of winning."

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Source: DocuramaFest (AP, 5/21)