Perilous pursuit

Rocky Robinson admits to having a bit of a one-track mind.

In fact, the title of his recently released book, “Flat Out, The Race for the Motorcycle World Land Speed Record,” pretty much sums up the object of his obsession.

The Grass Valley driver has actually once owned the title of “fastest man on two wheels,” but it was a short-lived ownership.

A little more than a year ago, Robinson raced to an average speed of 342.792 miles per hour across the Bonneville Salt Flats at the BUB Motorcycle Speed Trials in Utah, blowing away a 16-year-old record of 322 mph.

Yet two days later, the title was gone.

Chris Carr, driving for Denis Manning’s BUB Enterprises — Robinson’s former boss who is also based in Grass Valley — surpassed Robinson’s record with an average of 350.884 mph.

Robinson and Manning, who worked together for nearly 15 years, parted ways in 2005. By the following year, Manning had Carr behind the wheel of his bike and Robinson had landed in the seat of Mike Akatiff’s “Ack Attack.”

“I wouldn’t say there’s bad blood,” Robinson said. “We’re civil, but we’re definitely not like friends.

“They’ve got a great machine and a great driver, and so do we. It’s just a really, really good rivalry.”

After leaving Utah with the record, Carr and Manning were named the 2007 Motorcyclists of the Year by Motorcyclist Magazine.

And that’s where things stood until earlier this month when Robinson was back at Bonneville looking to chase down the mark set by Carr aboard Manning’s No. 7 Streamliner.

Conditions were nowhere near as favorable as the record-breaking trials of 2006, Robinson said. For starters, event organizers were able to only put together nine miles of solid track, as opposed to last year’s 11-mile strip.

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“Last year was the best conditions I’ve seen in the eight years I’ve been doing this,” Robinson said. “Mother Nature plays a huge role in this. Last year was just one of those years where everything was perfect.”

That wasn’t the case this time around, as no one came close to approaching last year’s record runs. In fact, Robinson’s average of 299.772 mph earned the $5,000 prize for top time of the meet.

Such speed is still plenty fast, especially when your bike suddenly fish-tails across the salt flats.

“The parachute yanked the bike back in line, but it yanked so hard that the rear wheel went up in the air and I actually flipped twice in a row,” said Robinson, a few days after escaping the crash at 276 miles per hour. “There was debris for a mile and a half.

“I’m just really lucky that I came out OK. I’m stiff and still have a little bit of a sore neck. But being at that speed, it’s amazing I’m not injured more seriously. That’s a tribute to the safety features designed into the bikes.”

Despite the violent impact of the high-speed crash, Robinson won’t be deterred from his goal of recapturing the record that remains in the hands of his former boss. His own crew was wondering if he still had the nerve to push forward in the chase, something Robinson said he didn’t even give a second thought.

“The goal is to leave with the record,” Robinson said. “We’ll be back next year and trying harder than ever.

“The goal is to get the record and leave with it. And I’m not going to stop until we do.”

Earlier this year, Robinson released “Flat Out” to share his story of pursuing his passion. It’s available locally at “The Book Seller” and also online at www.amazon.com. Robinson will be signing copies of the book from 1-3 p.m., Saturday Oct. 6 at the Book Seller.

“At one point, I finally realized that I should start documenting this,” Robinson said. “The goal was to continue until we got the record.

“The book is doing really well. When we get the record back, we’ll add more to it.”