Steve Harris, the founder of Harris Performance in the UK, died in June aged 73. His early work as a welder included F1 Lotus chassis building. He started his own business in 1972, and with brother Lester and fellow director Steve Bayford set up Harris Performance, selling approximately 2,000 Harris Magnum frame kits in five versions, plus making numerous frames to order. Paying customers included world champion Barry Sheene. Harris was involved at world championship Grand Prix level, WSB and with a MotoGP project for Sauber Petronas. Recent work included chassis design for Royal Enfield singles and twins. In 2015, Harris Performance was bought by Royal Enfield.
The news from the Isle of Man TT this summer was mostly of tragedy with five racer deaths recorded - the worst since 1989 - but in among the tragedy a reminder of why we are all drawn to racing like moths to light bulbs! MCN reported that Dean Harrison (DAO Racing Kawasaki) is reported to have recorded a lap speed of 131.767 mph (with a lap time of 17:10.817) in the third qualifying session for the TT on the iconic 37.3-mile public roads course.
Steve McQueen's 1971 Husky 400 has sold at auction for $186,500. Aka 'Harvey Mushman' (his sometime racing nom de guerre), this is the fourth time this particular McQueen-owned Husqvarna has gone to auction, last selling at a Bonhams auction in 2011 for $144,000. McQueen and his close friend and sometimes stunt double, Bud Ekins, autographed the bike at some point.
In case you were wondering about the lack of news from Bonneville this year - that's because the 2022 AMA Land Speed Grand Championship was cancelled. The AMA announcement came on August 14, just ten days after SEMA had praised the conservation and restoration efforts at the Salt Flats. It was flooding that caused the abandonment of FIM Land Speed World Record chasing for 2022. The event's assessment team, led by Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials (BMST) promoter Delvene Reber, reviewed current conditions of the Bonneville Salt Flats both by air and on the ground on August 12 and 13, and determined that all track locations and alternatives were still flooded. With between 4 and 10 inches of water in many places, the team determined that there was no possibility the salt would be sufficiently dry in time for track preparations and operations to begin.
Following the news in the United States that Arai is to end its distribution agreement with Tucker Powersports of Fort Worth, Texas, comes news that Yoshimura R&D of America (headquartered at Chino, California) is to "dissolve its distribution partnership with Tucker Powersports. After a 20-year relationship we find ourselves at a difficult crossroads and have made the decision to part ways with Tucker Powersports as a distribution partner". While an announcement is still awaited from Arai as to what alternate arrangements it plans to put in place, Yoshimura has acted quickly, announcing on the same day that Western Power Sports (WPS) will be its exclusive U.S. distributor. After being in private hands since it was founded as a snowmobile distributor in the 1960s, at Boise, Idaho, at the start of this year WPS announced that it had been purchased by Arrowhead Engineered Products (AEP), the owner of component brands such as All Balls Racing, Hot Cams and others, and the owner of multiple businesses in Europe such as Vertex and, since this summer, Bihr. Neither decision affects the brands' existing European distribution plans (as far as we know at this stage), but it is yet more evidence of "churn" in the distribution sector.
Sources: AMD, IDN, FT, Reuters, PSB, MPN, BDN, MCN, AP, Bloomberg, MSNW, Electrek, electricmotorcycles.news, RideApart.com, Motor1.com, Cycle World, motorbikewriter.com
