Flattrack, Road Racing and Land Speed records, oh my!
by James “the Rocket” Rispoli

Most 18 year olds would be content riding and racing one discipline just for fun let alone at the pro-level in three very different and diverse ones! Not me!

Hi, my name is James Rispoli and they have been calling me “the Rocket” since I was on a Suzuki JR 50cc motorcycle and 6 years old. I’m now 18 years old and a multi-discipline racer who loves Flattrack, Road Racing and now Land-Speed record chasing. I have been fortunate to have had an opportunity to sample so many types of racing at such a young age and in 2009 finally moved up to the AMA pro ranks and challenged the best in the nation and in some cases the world in some of those disciplines.  This year was really unique for me, especially during such a turbulent financial crisis in the world and more importantly what the motorcycle business was going through.  It was tough on sponsors and even tougher on racers especially us new up and coming ones.  But I had great support of my family, friends and long time sponsors that followed me all through my amateur career and we were able to get by and do more with less than ever before.  It was pretty cool and I was blessed to have all that support to say the least.

The 2009 season was awesome as I rode the AMA GNC pro-singles Flattrack class and finished second overall in the championship.  I also sampled three AMA Supersport class races and in my debut race at road America I finished 4^th overall against 26 of the fastest 16-21 year olds in the nation.  That performance got me a one time ride on the Roadracingworld.com/M4 Suzuki at Laguna Seca, the same weekend the MotoGP was in town. This time I challenged all race for the last spot on the podium only to make a mistake and ended up 4^th again, less than one second off the box. It was awesome.  But the most awesome thing that happened was that I was given a call from a long time sponsor Charlie Benton of North Carolina.  Charlie is a master craftsman who builds super fast and meticulous motors and motorcycles.  When I was 16 years old he invited me to be a race driver on his MotoGT team driving one of his Kawasaki twins at the Daytona 300. We went out and won that race against veteran flattrackers and road racers Jay Springsteen and Jimmy Felice who won it the year before.  It was too cool.  Now, Charlie called me up because he wanted to modify one of the Kawasaki 650 twins and go after a land speed record and he wanted me to pilot the vehicle into the record books.

I was so excited when I heard but I initially couldn’t tell anyone because Charlie needed to build the chassis from scratch and he needed to test it as a roller to make sure it would be stable before we made any announcements.  There was so much he had to do and he had to make it all up as he went along since he was modifying the swing arm, having carbon fiber made for the tank and seat pan and everything else.  The frame was cut and chopped, new rake was added and the whole thing was now only inches off the ground.  What was cool was that Charlie designed the thing so I would actually have to lie down on the bike with my feet stretched out behind me resting on some custom pegs just below the carbon fiber tail section.  This thing was starting to look like something right out of Area 51 and I was getting nervous and excited each passing week during the development.  The pictures Charlie sent me during each stage of the development were just plain sick; I loved it!

I was still concentrating on my flattrack and road racing but now it was two weeks away and I was getting really pumped.  I had a very important race on Sat August 29^th which was the Indiana Mile at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.  This was a huge flattrack race where the year before I took second place against the factory Kawasaki’s of legendary tuner Bill Werner where I piloted a stock framed and motor Aprilia SXV550 belonging to the Lloyd Brother’s Motorsports team.  In 2009 I was racing for the Weirbach Racing team and running their 450 Honda.  While I had a difficult race I still managed a respectable 5^th place on a back-up bike after a fall I had in a qualifying race.  The next morning however I was jetting off in a plane heading to the Bonneville Salt Flats with my dad.  I arrived late in the day and met up with Charlie and crew at the hotel.  This was the first time I finally got to see the bike up close, even to sit or should I say lay on it.  I never even rode the bike and the following morning I was heading to the salt just down the street to try and break a record.  I’m telling you I felt like the luckiest kid in the world for sure.

I can remember looking at the bike in the big van then laying down on it for the first time wondering, WOW this is too cool.  While it had a real foreign feel to me, my confidence was high on Charlie building me a fast, but more importantly a stable and safe motorbike to ride.  I wasn’t concerned about speed wobbles, engine failures or anything mechanical.  I knew I had the best of the best under me built by someone who thinks safety first in everything he designs.  By this time I was whooped and wanted to get to bed.

The next morning and the next three days were going to change my life forever.  I woke up the first morning and met everyone in the lobby at 5AM.  We have a little breakfast and headed out to the salt.  There was already a line.  The sun was just starting to lighten up the sky a little and they released us to the salt.  There were orange markers and we all played follow the leader.  When you looked out all you saw was a vast emptiness. It was crazy.  My dad and I looked at each other and both wondered where we were going.  We kept following for miles and then all of a sudden out in the distance you could start to see some specs start to come into focus.  Those specs eventually turned into a small city of cars, trailers, motor homes and small aircraft all out on the salt all compacted into one area and there were hundreds of them.  From the shoreline you could see nothing yet out there it was a small city of people from around the world all gathered together for one challenge; to beat the timed measured mile.  Now, I have been to the salt a few years back where I was part of a team that broke a NASCAR land speed record.  I was one of the crew members that had a hand in building that car, but we were on the salt all alone for that record.  This was the first time I was there with a motorcycle and the first time competing where hundreds of other competitors were there as well.

We settled into a pit area and headed to a meeting where the AMA officials and organizers presented all the safety plans and layout of the speed runs. The meeting lasted about a half hour and we were back starting to get ready for a run.  I suited up while the team prepared the bike, got the spec fuel and brought the bike to the line to be released to one of three starting points.  Our first start was on a short course that allowed a “run” what-ya-brung area.  I was going to shake down the bike and get a handle on what it felt like. I never rode on the salt and never rode this bike so it was all going to be new to me.  I was given the OK to start out and I went nice and easy as I started to shift the bike into high gear.  I hit 6^th gear as I entered the mile marker and eased the throttle all the way open.  I was tucked in and remember seeing the white ground go past me at what felt like a million miles an hour.  The bike was really stable but was a little difficult to judge a straight line while so many things were happening.  I rushed through the measured mile and slowly eased off the gas to slow down.  My first pass went awesome and we shot through the traps at 141 MPH.  The record I needed to beat was in the 147 MPH range and being that close first time out ever we all felt the record was in reach.  But I soon found out that those little extra MPH are not so easy to get.  We made two more runs the first day and while we crept up a little more, the record eluded us by over one mile per hour.  It would turn out that the last one mile per hour would take us three days and eight runs later to finally achieve.

On each passing day on the salt I learned a lot more.  I learned that any wheel spin meant I could never make up that time in the speed trap.  I learned that my run needed to be a straight as can be too and the salt when it got harder, got faster.  Any push from the wind would not only push me off track but would make the distance longer through the trap which would lose me precious little fractions of a mile per hour.  On the last day toward the end of the day I was trying my best to pull it all together.  On the run down I felt fast.  I had very little wheel slippage as I cruised through the measured mile.  On the other end we got the word that we finally did it.  We broke the record with a run of 149 MPH, two MPH faster than the previous record.  But that was just half of it.  I needed to make a turnaround run with in an hour and there was only one more hour of time trial time left before they shut the course down for the day.  It was nerve racking for sure.  We had been on the salt for three days now, inching up on a record that has eluded us all week long. Now we were just seconds away from knowing if we could back up our run and claim glory.

The team readied the bike and I suited up for my return trip.  I took off and automatically noticed the salt felt a little harder and bumpier on the return trip. The rear wheel slipped a little bit more as I was reaching the measured entry point but I was determined to tuck in tight and hang it all out.  I went through the traps and instantly knew I had it.  My run went over 151 MPH and the team and I was jumping for joy after the run.  We needed to rush our way back to get inspected before the end of the day and everyone was pumped.

This week long event was the most challenging of all the racing I have ever done. Going for a land speed record takes so much support, and so much planning.  Things you are not thinking about when you are flattrack or road racing all become obstacles when you are trying to achieve all out speed.  The experience has helped me realize that I have many things I need to improve upon in the other disciplines I race that would take precious 10ths of a second off my lap times and help propel me to the lead.  I am so grateful to have such great sponsors like Charlie Benton who believe in my determination and ability. By having this experience it will make me a better, more thoughtful racer one that could continue to pursue dreams of having fun and making a living piloting a motorcycle.

The 2010 season is upon us and I can’t wait for the season’s opener at Daytona.  For 2010 I will be racing 19 of the 21 AMA GNC pro singles flattrack series, 7 east coast rounds of the AMA Pro Supersport series plus Laguna Seca.  I have already been selected by Charlie Benton of Cycle Dynamics to be the pilot for two new bikes he is building and two more FIM/AMA Land Speed records. The season is going to be exciting and I can’t wait to tell you all about it.

To stay in contact with what’s happening on and off the track check out my new web site www.jamesrispoli.com. There you will find my schedule, results, stories and reports of what’s happening as I travel the country.

Till then do what I like to do, go FASTER…

James “the Rocket” Rispoli