> Y'all need to write the guy and let him know your actual feelings....
Subject: Clearing Up the Motorcycle Land Speed Record(TWFI review)
To:
Name: Kevin A Wilson
Job Title: Senior Editor - Special Projects
E-Mail: kwilson@crain.com
CC:
Name: Rich Ceppos
Job Title: Publisher
E-Mail: rceppos@crain.com
Kevin,
With you being the Senior Editor, I am in hopes that you and your staff will
have a deeper look into the position of the Land Speed Racing community
concerning this movie. And once(if), you find the true feelings of this movie
inside a very tight knit family of racers... you will also find it in your
pen to scribe something more then one of your writers personal thoughts or
that of less then a handful of racers that may have been interviewed.
I'm not going to go into my personal thoughts(as I imagine you will receive a
letter from other ECTA, SCTA, BNI and FIM members regarding your article),
other than stating that I will see the movie again, will reccomend it to
everyone I know and have not felt more in tune with a movie since I was a
child.
Your research concerning these statements is sad at best from my view. Some
of the biggest names(racers involved in LSR across this country on a daily
basis as well as many that were there at the same time Burt Munro was there),
were not only involved with the film, but also discuss the movie on a daily
basis online. I am lucky enough to be able to read these discussions, which
show nothing but admiration for it's portrayal(including the statement in
the final credits that there are fictional and time-line discrepancies
represented).
By the way, the title of your article is irrelevant to the movie making it
rather ironic. The title of the movie is The World's Fastest "INDIAN", not
The World's Fastest "MOTORCYCLE".
Until I hear from you or your staff that there is a better representation of
the feelings of the "true" LSR community being put to print, I will be
avoiding your form of media and recommend to others I know that they do the
same.
Sincerely,
Todd Dross - ECTA 200MPH Club Member since 2002
Twin Jugs Cycle(Harley & Indian Repair shop)
Fredericksburg, Virginia - 540-657-8481
------------------------ Original Article -----------------------------
Clearing Up the Motorcycle Land Speed Record
By AUTOWEEK
AutoWeek | Published 02/09/06, 10:23 am et
While Hollywood has seldom gotten a racing or car movie right, land speed
racers are offended by the new movie The Worlds Fastest Indian. While New
Zealand racer Burt Munro did come to Bonneville to run his Indian motorcycle
in the 1960s, his was not the worlds fastest motorcycle at the time, and he
did not set any world records. The distinction is a powerful one among the
land speed racing community.
So, for the record, the world motorcycle speed mark for that time period
belongs to Bob Leppan, who rode his Triumph Streamliner to 245 mph on the
salt.
The Vesco brothers, Don and Rick, broke that record, going more than 300 mph.
Dave Campos holds the current mark at 322 mph
------------------------- End Of Article -------------------------------
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