In the world of land speed racing, weather is a key factor in both performance of machinery and safety. In the case of the Triumph-powered Castrol Rocket streamliner, weather has also been a confounding factor.
The Castrol Rocket, built as a collaboration between Hot Rod Conspiracy, Carpenter Racing, Triumph and Castrol, saw action at the Bonneville Salt Flats in 2013 with professional driver, Jason DiSalvo at the controls for testing and development.
The plan called for the team to make their world speed record attempt at the 2014 Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials in August.
However, due to wet conditions on the flats, the long course, normally a total of 11 miles in length had to be shortened to 7 miles. That was too short for the machine that is designed to break the 400 mph barrier, so an attempt during that event was cancelled.
The plan then became to make an attempt at Mike Cook’s Shootout scheduled for the Bonneville Salt Flats in early September, but those plans also were scotched by the same factors, but Triumph and the constructors of the Castrol Rocket, had plans to reschedule the attempt for October 5-10. Those plans, too, have now been set aside by the weather.
“Of course we are disappointed, but the weather pattern and the track conditions are obviously beyond our control,” said Matt Sheahan, Chief Operating Officer for Triumph Motorcycles America.
“Our team has made great progress in the past 13 months since first taking the Triumph Castrol Rocket to the Salt last August. We now turn our efforts to making further refinements to the machine, and hope to get back on the Bonneville International Speedway in 2015.”
In the meantime, the Castrol Rocket will still be making tracks, even if not on the salt flats of the Bonneville International Speedway.
Triumph has announced plans to display the Triumph Castrol Rocket at the upcoming Barber Vintage Festival presented by Triumph Dealers of North America, October 10-12, at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala. Additional appearances are also being planned for late 2014 and early 2015 at consumer and industry events.
For more information and ongoing updates for display appearances of the Triumph Castrol Rocket, please visit Castrolrocket.com.
For more coverage on the Triumph Castrol Rocket, see:
- Triumph Castrol Rocket Land Speed Assault Postponed
- Triumph Castrol Rocket to Attempt Another Speed Record
