2010 Lake Gairdner Speed Trials

The biggest event on the 2010 Dry Lakes Racers Australia (DLRA) national calendar, Speed Week at Lake Gairdner, will be held from March 8-12, with the remote location again set to attract competitors from all over Australia and overseas.

Lake Gairdner is certainly a unique locale: it's not only damn hot, but the surface is as hard as concrete and offers only minimum levels of grip. Like ice, if you will. And the nearest town, the imaginatively named Iron Knob, is 120km away. By car, it's about 21 hours' drive from Melbourne, 25 from Sydney and a 'mere' eight from Adelaide.

But that demanding cocktail doesn't seem to be the slightest deterrent to the dedicated band of competitors and spectators who keep on returning year after year.

In 2010, Speed Week is turning 21, and around 170 vehicles - about 25 percent of them motorcycles - are already on the entry list, across a multitude of classes.

In the motorcycle categories, the legendary Suzuki Hayabusa is well represented, and there are also Moto Guzzis, Kawasakis, Triumphs, Vincents, Yamahas, Hondas, Harley-Davidsons, Nortons and MV Agustas.

Of course, the ubiquitous Honda CT110 postie bike is there, and one chap is trying his luck on a Yamaha DT175. And Yamaha's cult SR500 single also gets a look in. Click on the following link to view the Speed Week entries.

Greg Watters, who took his turbocharged Hayabusa to a top speed of 218.970mph (352.398km/h) at last year's event (see below, but please excuse the F bombs), will again be on the starting list in 2010.

In 2008, Watters, a wheat farmer from Wunghnu (pronounced "one ewe") in country Victoria, broke an 18-year-old motorcycle land speed record in the 2008 World of Speed event at the spiritual home of drag racing in Bonneville, Utah.

Watters broke the record in a 750cc class on his turbocharged Suzuki, hitting a top speed of 212.404mph (341.831km/h). In the process, he became one of only four men to have broken the 200mph barrier in the 750cc open-wheeled classes in over 60 years.

Spectators are also welcome at Lake Gairdner, but the DLRA advises - most wisely - that walking around the lake while the competition is on may not be such a good idea.

Mind you, not all is lost for those after a pleasant stroll, as the lake -- named by the Governor of South Australia, Richard MacDonnell in 1857 after Gordon Gairdner, a Chief Clerk of the Australian Department in the Colonial Office -- is around 160km long and 30km wide, and only a relatively small patch is allowed to be used for drag racing.

Lake Gairdner is Australia's fourth largest salt lake, and the salt is over 1m thick in some areas, providing one of the best surfaces in the world for drag racers to ply their trade.

That's why in 2006, a Hayabusa-engined motorcycle - the "TOP-1 Ack Attack" - attempted to break the 16-year-old FIM land speed record at Lake Gairdner, but the challenge was aborted after too much pre-event precipitation.

However, the 2600cc Ack-Attack finally set the new record at Bonneville in September 2006, but the benchmark is now held by Chris Carr in the 2997cc BUB - Lucky 7 streamliner at 367.382mph (591.244km/h).

Ack Attack is an engineering masterpiece. Powered by two turbo-charged Hayabusa engines, ensconced in chrome-moly tubing and a predominantly carbon-fibre skin, output is around 900hp.

There is a 68lt ice and water-cooling system, as well as bespoke systems to keep the chain, brakes and cockpit at sustainable temperatures. Safety equipment included a seven-point safety harness for the pilot; parachutes which deployed automatically when the bike exceeded 45 degrees of lean; and low-speed stabilising wheels.