Flat Out: Book Review
Imagine devoting over a decade of your life towards one goal and finally at long last achieving your dream. Then, imagine having it soured by that aspiration being surpassed within a matter of hours by someone else. Author and daredevil Rocky Robinson recounts just such a story in his book, Flat Out: The Race for the Motorcycle World Land Speed Record.
After breaking the motorcycle world land speed record that had existed for 16 years, Robinson’s journey was just beginning. This 256 page hardcover book is a firsthand account of the trials, tribulations, heroism and heartbreak that Robinson and his team face as they attempt to achieve the impossible.
In the world of motorsports, one record has proven the most vexing to break: the motorcycle land speed record. In 1974, Don Vesco rode a streamlined motorcycle to a record-breaking speed of 318 mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats. That record stood for 16 years, until Dave Campos rode a motorcycle 322 mph, a record that stood for another 16 years until Labor Day Weekend 2006 when a daredevil named Rocky Robinson rode his Suzuki-powered streamliner to an incredible 344 mph!
More recently, the Top 1 Oil-sponsored team was witnessed by an official of the Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) on September 26, making them eligible for the Guinness Book of World Records. Two years after suffering the disappointment of being beat by his Bonneville rival for the land-speed record, Robinson and the Ack Attack team were able to steal the outright motorcycle record with a 360.913-mph run, making Robinson the fastest man on two wheels.
Follow Robinson through the two-wheeled exploits of 2006 as he battled AMA flat-track champion Chris Carr during a year at Bonneville unlike any other, before or since. Flat Out is a story filled with challenges, triumphs, and most of all; acknowledgment of the desire and dedication needed to pursue one’s dreams once and for all no matter what they may be.
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