The salt is ready, the motorcycles are ready, now comes the waiting for the perfect moment to make a historic run. A breezy afternoon meant that FIM competitors at the 2023 Bolivia Speed Trials will have to wait another day before making their big attempts. Teams are now prepped, tech inspections completed and shakedown runs ready to commence, and as soon as conditions allow, riders Rocky Robinson, Al Lamb, Richard Assen, Scott Horner, Jamie Williams and Mike Garcia are poised to give it their all on the Salar de Uyuni.
Richard Assen of New Zealand (by way of Australia) had the longest trek to reach the Salar. Having reached Bolivia only after he and his team endured nearly 50 hours of travel, Assen talked about his decision to come to Bolivia to compete aboard his hand-built turbo-charged Hayabusa.
“I’ve been doing land speed racing for a long time now and I’ve been working on this specific bike for quite a few years,” remarked Assen. “I’ve raced it at Lake Gairdner, (Australia), not in a reasonable way; we didn’t push the bike to its full potential. Most of that was conditions-based.
“If you want to come to the best land speed track in the world, this is the place to be, by far. You got 15 miles. You never get 15 miles on any track anymore. Anywhere in the world. If we can get a decent tuning here for the altitude, we’ll be singin’ Dixie, I reckon.” [laughs]
Racing will commence on 19 August. Racers still have three more days to look forward to on the Salar de Uyuni, where multiple FIM Land Speed World Records could tumble.
MORE BOLIVIA SPEED TRIALS NEWS HERE!
Text & photos Jean Turner