Salt, Speed and Dust – Chapter 2

“She never felt ready, but she was brave, and the universe responds to the brave”

2018 was a huge year for me.  I had finished all four races in Baja in the Ironman class, only the third rider to ever do so.  The last race was the prize, and the one I had chased for three years.  I had become one of only 25 riders to ever finish the Baja 1000 Ironman solo, and was the oldest guy to ever do it.  It took me 34 ½ hours on the bike.

It took years of work.  After something like that, you ask “What’s next?”

In 2019 I raced some in the desert including a failed attempt at the Baja 1000 where I took a wrong turn that cost me 70 miles of extra riding, and ultimately, my hands gave out; I could not hold onto the bike anymore.  I have a bad knee, and it’s getting worse. I remembered Chris’s invitation and the Salt Flats.  I called Chris.  “It’s time”.

I didn’t set the goal, Chris had set it for me.  Go over 200 mph on one of these Suzuki Hayabusa motorcycles.  It sounded really fast to me.  Sit there and twist the throttle until you hit 200?  How hard could that be?  What could go wrong?

I had no idea what the 200-mph barrier really meant, how difficult it would be, and what it would really take.  Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.

Like when I started my business.  If I knew all the discomfort and hardship and suffering I was signing up for, well maybe I’d have weighed my options.  Sometimes it’s better to keep your eyes on the prize and not know what it will take until your deep into it and committed.

The Bonneville Salt Flats are located in northwestern Utah on the Nevada border.  Bonneville is named after Benjamin Bonneville, who was an Army Officer that explored the Western United States back in the 1800s. The salt flats were first discovered to be drivable when Bill Rishel drove a Pierce-Arrow across the salt in 1907.

Soon after this test drive, word began to spread that Bonneville was drivable and the first land speed record was set there in 1914 by American race car driver, Teddy Tetzlaff who was well known for his Indy 500 racing fame. Tetzlaff would set this first record in a custom-built 200hp car known as the Blitzen-Benz. To set this record, Tetzlaff was able to get the Benz up to 141.73 mph on the flats.

Despite Tetzlaff setting this land speed record, promoters had a tough time getting more drivers to attempt setting records at Bonneville. This proved to be a problem till the mid-1930s when a local Utah man by the name of Ab Jenkins began setting long-distance and endurance records at the salt flats.

Jenkins kept setting his own endurance and land speed records at Bonneville and in 1932 he was able to attract the attention of the car manufacturer Pierce-Arrow.

Pierce-Arrow was testing a new 12-cylinder car at the time and they contacted Jenkins to see if he could help them improve the performance since, at the time, it was slower than the v8. Jenkins did some tuning to the engine and he then came up with an idea to test the performance of the new 12-cylinder. He would drive the car as fast as he could at Bonneville for 24-hours straight to show how powerful and durable the engine is and prove to the racing world that Bonneville was indeed the place for land speed records.

Jenkins ran the car on a 10-mile course that was set up at Bonneville. He would only stop every two hours for fuel and during the 24-hour period he never once left the driver’s seat. His average speed during the endurance test was an amazing record of 112.916 mph.

He would then make another endurance run using the Pierce-Arrow in 1933. During this run he set a new record by getting up to an average speed of 125 mph. Three of Britain’s top racers John Cobb, Sir Malcolm Campbell, and Sir George Eyston happen to be in attendance and became interested in setting some of their own records.

The rest is history.  Racers came out year after year to set new records in various classes of vehicles.  To this day, records are broken in class after class as racers go home and modify their vehicles to go even faster and one-up the previous record holder. 

I watched two movies – “The World’s Fastest Indian” and “Out of Nothing” and came to appreciate the Salt Flats and the long history of man’s pursuit of speed there.

But me?  I had never ridden on foot on a Suzuki Hayabusa and here I was going there to attempt something that had not been done until not so many years ago on a motorcycle…

Salt, Speed and Dust – Prologue

It was a few years ago I suppose, when Chris Haines lit the spark.

Chris Haines is my desert racing support team owner.  In his day, Chris has won a LOT of races in Baja, and he’s in the Off-Road Racing Hall of Fame.  His shop is in Southern California.  I was there for a short visit and I see these two beautiful street bikes.  He starts telling me about them and about the Bonneville Salt Flats and let out a soft invitation – a challenge even.  It was so foreign to me.  I let it go. 

I had desert races to run in Baja.  My quest to finish the Baja 1000 solo had not been completed yet.  I’d spent thousands of hours riding motorcycles in my time, but not that kind of motorcycle.  That’s not for me….or….nahhh….

The places we go, and the people we meet.  That’s what shapes our lives. 

Everyone’s heard it – “hang around interesting people”, and the corollary, “be careful who you hang around with”.  Maybe the person I was with that day offered to take me hang gliding, or mountain climbing or some other adventure.  Maybe they would try to hustle me and offer me a scam investment, or offer me drugs, or show me some other behavior on the lower tier of what humanity has to offer.

The people we get with have an influence on us – and some will cause us to take a fork in the road that has a profound impact on our lives. 

This is the beginning of a story, right here on Think Daily.  It’s a daring adventure, and a personal challenge.  I hope you enjoy it.

To be continued…

Loving others

“When you make loving others the story of your life, there’s never a final chapter, because the legacy continues.  You lend your light to one person, and he or she shines it on another and another and another.” – Oprah Winfrey

It’s in all of us.  Show it.  Don’t ration it. 

Express it a little more today.

"We dig our graves with our teeth"

The other day we stopped for ice cream.  There was a long line.  It was a big one, and ohhh, it tasted so good!

Well, I didn’t eat lunch because of it, and I felt like hell after it.  My body was trying to process the giant flood of dairy and sugar.  My digestive system took all the energy from the rest of me to deal with it. I had to lay down and rest!

I pondered what would happen to me if I made a habit of it.  

“We dig our graves with our teeth.” -Fannie Hurst

Stop drinking sugar

Soda, fruit juices, iced teas…the single best thing you can do to improve your diet is to stop drinking sugar.

Take Control

There were times in my life when I felt things were going off the rails or a situation was bad and I felt powerless.  Maybe it was a persistent disempowering relationship that I didn’t want to disrupt, but at the same time I was being disrespected or kicked around.  Maybe it was an employee who had some good qualities, but bad ones that offset it.  Maybe it was something that was no good for me or my spirit but hadn’t done anything about yet.

Sound familiar?

I got my power back by (finally) making a decision and taking control.  By speaking up and acting.  Maybe you have to be fed up enough and hurt enough, and maybe you just have to stop delaying the decision.  Either way, make a decision for you, even if it won’t be a popular one for someone else. 

Take your power back.

Confident but Open

If you don’t understand paradox, then personal development advice can seem a little confusing at times.

A paradox is when one thing is true, and the opposite is also true.  It also may be a statement that contradicts itself.  Like work hard and do what it takes, but get enough sleep, to cite a very simple example.

Being confident in what you are doing and being open to learning may seem contradictory.  But let’s explain the nuance.  If you go into the world confident NOT that you know everything or that your beliefs are right, but confident that you can figure things out and are as able as anyone to succeed, it is a great predictor of your success.  But being overly confident that you know how to do it best is a weakness.  You must be open to learning from your mistakes and from others, rather than proving you were or are right. 

In what area are you not confident enough?  What area are you too confident?

Willing to look foolish?

That’s the only way you can make bold moves forward.  Do things you have never done before.

Sometimes you will look stupid because you are not good at it yet.  

But you have to be willing to be bad at it before you can be good at it.

Are you willing to look like a beginner?

You're not responsible for your childhood

When we were kids we didn’t have any control or choice in what was going on.  You are not responsible for your childhood.

Now you are an adult and you are responsible for your life.  If you don’t take full responsibility, you will have to accept what happens to you, like a child.  But by accepting full responsibility, it is amazing what you can do and experience.

Are there areas of your life that you have abdicated to others, ignored, or neglected?

Projecting the past into the future

Each morning we get out of bed and live a day that is an extension of the previous ones. 

But human beings are the only species who have a choice and can change their lives at will.

Remember that.