March 21, 2006 (SAN JOSE, CA) – Delayed by rain and flooding during the March 6 – 10 Australian Speed Week, a team of American motorcycle racing veterans will now shift its land-speed world record assault to the salt flats of Bonneville. The Top-1 “Ack-Attack” team, sponsored by Burlingame, California-based Top Oil Products Company and led by noted motorcycle designer Mike Akatiff, plans a practice run during the August 12 – 18 Bonneville Speed Week. The team will then return September 3 -7 for the International Motorcycle Speed Trails by BUB to again challenge the current record of 322 mph.

The Top-1 team’s custom-built 900-horsepower streamliner bike has already set an unofficial motorcycle land-speed record of 328.3 miles per hour during an October 16, 2004 run at Bonneville. While certified by Bonneville Nationals, Inc. and the Southern California Timing Association, a record must also be certified by FIM for inclusion in the Guiness Book of World Records. FIM officials will be on hand this time to witness the Top-1 “Ack-Attack” attempt – one that will pit Mike Akatiff and crew against two other world-class teams for a once-in-a-lifetime land-speed world record showdown.

An Impending Showdown

This year’s annual BUB Speed Trials in September promise to be a showdown among the top three streamliners in the world: the Top-1 Ack-Attack, Sam Wheeler’s E-Z-Hook, and Denis Manning’s #7. And, if a new world record isn’t set there, the three competitors are likely to return to Bonneville in October for the World Finals.

Only Two World Records in 42 Years

Following less than two years of design and construction, the Ack-Attack’s unofficial record is especially impressive in light of the fact that the current 322-mph world record has stood for 16 years – also the time it took Dave Campos and the Easy Rider team to break the old 318-mph record set by Don Vesco, who spent a decade trying before he made it into the record books.

Twin-Engine Turbo Power

Looking more like a sleek airplane fuselage than a conventional motorcycle, the Top-1 streamliner is about 20 feet long. Beneath its carbon-fiber skin, a chrome-moly tube frame links the two wheels, cockpit, and powertrain, which features two heavily modified Hayabusa motorcycle engines with a combined displacement of about 2.6 liters. The Top-1 Ack Attack streamliner rides on ultra-high-speed Mickey Thompson automotive tires – seven inches wide in front and nine inches at the rear.

Mike Akatiff is a well-known motorcycle engineer and AMA dirt-track and desert racer who built race bikes under contract with BSA Motorcycles for AMA champions Jim Rice and Dick Mann before starting his own company in 1971 to design and manufacture racing and custom motorcycle parts. In 1987, Akatiff founded another company, ACK Technologies, which is the largest manufacturer of aircraft altitude digitizers and emergency location transmitters. In 1997, the Federal Aeronautics Administration appointed him as a designee with authority to perform conformity inspections and grant FAA airworthiness certificates. Akatiff began the design and construction of the Top-1 Ack-Attack twin-engine motorcycle streamliner in 2002, setting an unofficial land-speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats less than two years later.

Check back soon for more updates on the Ack Attack!