Doing more with less

Making the most of what you have is the only way we know how to do things here at TLN Motorsports. We are always making things go further, reusing parts that need replaced and simply making something out of nothing at times. We buy used parts from teams that are discarding them and they go on our bikes. I'm not saying feel sorry for us. Far from that. Our ZX-6rr is the current World Record holder for a normally aspirated 650cc class motorcycle in the standing mile (184.161 mph), the 1.5 mile (190.118 mph), or at any distance (190.118 mph). After the 182.095 mph on the mile at Maxton during the Throttle Nation Top Speed Challenge we added the title as the Worlds Fastest Normally Aspirated 650cc Street Bike. The bike was dressed in street clothes and was street legal. Our ZX-10 is in the 200 club on the 1.5 mile at Loring with multiple runns over 203, topping out with 203.965 mph, and we are knocking on the door on the mile at Maxton with our 198.887 mph pass.

I recently had a motorsports journalist tell me that the major publications shy away from Land Speed stories because the feel like the motorcycles look like they were put together in someones garage. OK, they look likwe that because they are. The garage was a step up for us. Before the bikes were put together in the front room of our house. Making the most of what you have. No matter what the bikes look like, the fact is they performe. No person walking this earth has gone faster than Wild Bill on a motorcycle, not a streamliner with motorcycle engines). 273 mph and he has the potential for so much more. No one is faster than we are on our normally aspirated 636. Eddie Powell went over 200 mph on his turbo Busa sidecar last month at Maxton. His side car is engineered and fabricated in the garage. Maybe $500.00 in it. The sidecars that cost thousands are not in his league. Again, making the most of what you have.

Sure, there is so much more we would like to do to our bikes. We know there is more speed in them. We do what we can and find ways to get the speed. We know there are monstor bikes coming out every year. We make the most of what we have, then go to the arena to compete. It is who we are, and the way we approach racing as well as life.

I do have one question for the people who say the bikes just look like they are built in the garage. What kind of speeds could be obtained if we had the budget of a Moto GP team, a WSBK team, a factory team. Land Speed racers simply make the most of what they have, and continue to be the fastest in the World.

I think the country could learn something from the way we do business. Success comes from the hard work, the preperation, the Never Give Up/Never Give In attitude. I would not bet against us making it to Maxton over Halloween and our ZX-10 going 200 mph in the standing mile. That ZX-6 would like to see 185 mph. Stay tuned.