Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, 5th September 2006
William Scherer sits astride his Kawasaki ZX-14 in reflective mode, focusing his thoughts
on the big ride he is about to take across the flats.
In a moment he will switch on the 200 bhp
four-cyclinder engine, wind the throttle all the way to its stop point and tease out
every last
drop of power from the machine. That is not without its dangers. Although the salt lake - witness
to many a speed record - is flat as a
pancake, if the rider loses control at high speed there's
a good chance he will suffer serious injury or even death. Scherer covered the measured mile
at an average 194.79 mph (313km/h), a new World record.
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