10 Things You Didn’t Know About Land Speed Racing

While Land Speed Racing (LSR) may not appear to share a lot in common with dirtbike racing, the historic sport is carried out on a surface that is more akin to clay than asphalt. Here are 10 things you might not know about LSR.

4. Even a slight breeze of 3 mph is considered “too windy” for a run.

Land Speed Racing
If that piece of ribbon is moving at all, you’re not running. PHOTO BY JEAN TURNER.
Multiply a three-mph crosswind by 300 mph, and the fact that the body of a streamliner is the size of a small billboard, and you have a force big enough to blow you off course. The two-wheel streamliners are far more sensitive to this than the four-wheelers, which is why motorcycles now have their own FIM-sanctioned speed week. The Mike Cook Shootout offers priority to the streamliners; when the conditions are just right, they are allowed to cut to the front of the line to make their run.

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