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Team MS: We did it!
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Editor’s Note:
The last time I talked with Jim Haraughty, he was busy prepping his 66 Triumph for a run at the Land Speed Record in his class at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.
And as it turns out Jim took the time to send me this update on the results of his efforts. Jim has been living with MS for just short of 7 years now and the main mission of the TemaMS charity is to ‘remind people of the importance of staying active in life when living with MS.’
(You can see more TeamMS photos from Bonneville in the slideshow, below)
Jim's Diary of his Bonneville adventure follows:
Jim gets some last minute instructions before his record attempt
All photos courtesy TeamMS
They Did it!
Well October finally came and we are once again on the salt flats at Bonneville. We were
a little concerned when we received a call while enroute telling us that the event was
pushed back a day due to weather. As it turned out we had the best salt any of the
officials from the SCTA origination can remember.
So the pressure was really on to get that record! It has been nice seeing people I have not seen for two years and I really have enjoyed that Team MS is well represented out here. We have a photographer from Germany (Thomas Graf) running around taking pictures with a Team MS sticker on his camera and one of the first Team MS members (Aaron Frank) who came out to ride an
electric bike into history fashioning his Team MS fleece. I am caught off guard and pleasantly surprised at the support.
The Team and I have another friend named Gary Ilminen who came out to run his bike and see what all the hoopla was about. In a lot of ways I am envious of Gary. He bought the bike for $400.00- including the trailer! The bike was a “steal” as it had not been ridden in about thirteen years! Wow! But with the “itch to run the bike on the salt”; he hauled the bike and his wife all the way to Utah to see Bonneville.
Living with MS you sometimes have to deal what your body will give you. I tell my wife Kathleen, “everyday is like Christmas; you wake up and see how you are moving and are thankful for what you have. “
My first run was enough to run for a record on the next day. My speed was nowhere near the potential of the bike but it was enough for a shot at the record. The question became: do I get a record or chance blowing up the bike and getting no record?
I went with the record.
If you make a qualifying run your bike is impounded overnight and you do the return run the following morning. If your combined times are faster than the current record you have a record. That is of course if your bike passes tech. After my return run my bike went to tech were it was tore down and measured to make sure that it was as it was all that was claimed to be.
Tom the Chief Tech sure did make both Bill and I sweat-really good before certifying that the bike had passed. I think he was having fun with us!
Unfortunately once my bike was tore down, there were no more runs to be made. Next year with all of the insight I have learned from doing this a couple of times now, I would like to focus on posting a number with the full potential of the bike. But for now I have my record in hand and have a target for next year. You just can’t beat that!
Bill had a few more problems with his Ducati as he blew apart his manifold on his first run and that required a bit of re-fabrication to do more runs. Because we kept Bill busy making sure my bike was working he really did not get the opportunity to work on his own bike as much as he should have.
Working on your bike in a trailer while traveling down the Salt to make another run is really not the best way to get results. Bill’s last run posted at 198mph-that is before it blew up the manifold again. This blow up was even larger than the last and the Timing Techs even called out the explosion over the CB. Flashy, uh?!
One of the very first supporters and racers for Team MS-Aaron Frank made history on the salt by doing 160mph on an electric bike. Nice job Aaron.
Again, I cannot thank all of you for your support and thoughts. It was a good year and next year will be even better. We have our target in site and we are homing in.
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