Last year the Zlock Racing team left the Bonneville Salt Flats with three new FIM-accredited Land Speed World Records (LSWR) and the motorcycle performance specialists from Washington State in the Pacific Northwest are back for this week’s 2026 Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials (BMST) August 23-27, aiming to rewrite the record books once again.
In 2025 it was the team’s Dale Zlock and Lisa Cipolla who set new benchmark speeds on the world-famous Utah salt flats and 57-year-old Cipolla–a Youth Services Librarian–is hoping to extend the two records she set last year. But 70-year-old Zlock will be joining the support crew as his elder brother, Dan, makes an attempt on a record that has stood since 1993.
“My bike is going to require a substantial redesign in order to reach the 175 mph that I need to break the record I’m going after,” explained Dale. “It’s just going to take too much time and effort and I’ve only just started to think about the redesign so I need to take a year off. There’s bodywork that needs to be done, there are chassis pieces that have to be made and then there’s the engine – it’s not just a matter of building a bigger engine, there’s a lot of other stuff involved.”
All record categories are gender-neutral and determined by the method by which the motorcycle is propelled, body kit, power source, capacity, and number of cylinders. Part of the FIM LSWR discipline, the BMST is an annual event that has run since 2004 and given the discipline’s very particular requirements-–most notably a vast expanse of flat, firm terrain and favorable weather conditions–it represents a once-a-year opportunity for the majority of competitors looking to set new records.
Last year Dan Zlock, who has been competing at the BMST since 2013, had hoped to exceed the record for a partially-streamlined 750cc machine that currently stands at 186.302 mph (299.824 kph) and was set by three-time FIM MotoGP World Champion Loris Capirossi on a factory HRC Honda, but conditions were not suitable. However, this time around the 73-year-old is optimistic about his chances.
“I have a 750 of my own design,” he said. “The chassis is the same ZX-10R chassis that I’ve used to set records at over 200 mph, but I’ve developed a 750 engine to fit in that chassis. It’s my own design based on a 2000 ZX-9R, but I’ve de-stroked it, de-bored it and modified it and it runs on nitrous. It’s an interesting piece of kit.
“Last year the conditions weren’t right, but that was OK because I’d already set it on fire twice – once on the dyno and again on the salt so as it turned out it was all for the best. The current record sits at 186 mph so I need the 750 to go probably around 190 and that’s a big ask.
“On the dyno it makes around 170 horsepower on nitrous, but the nitrous only lasts for about 30 seconds so I will need to get the timing on the course correct, the salt must be good and the wind has to be good. It’s doable, but everything has to be right. The bike has already gone 186 mph in 2024 – and the salt wasn’t all that good – but on the return run at about that speed I hit a rut that knocked me up and out of the saddle and scared the living daylights out of myself.”
Cipolla, whose heroics last year earned her the nickname “the World’s Fastest Librarian,” returns with her four-cylinder 2012 Zlock Racing 600cc Kawasaki ZX-6R that is decked out, as are all Zlock machines, in the team’s trademark fluorescent yellow. With special pistons and upgraded conrods, designed by Dan and made by Arrow Precision in England who manufacture components for MotoGP and F1, much to her delight, this time around it has also been fitted with a nitrous oxide kit for extra horsepower.
“I feel totally factory,” she said. “I just turn up and the team hand me my bike and are like ‘here it is.’ I know how to start it, I know how to throw a leg over it and I know how to ride it. After that I don’t know all that much.”
In 2025 Cipolla set a new FIM World Record with a top speed of 146.799mph (236.251km/h) with her machine partially streamlined before returning the next day, removing her bodywork and achieving an unfaired FIM World Record of 135.466mph (217.979km/h). Both records had ‘open’ status, meaning Lisa was the first rider to attempt them.
“I’ll be attempting to break my own records. I’m hoping for better salt because I feel like the records I set last year were so slow. I should be able to hit 160 without trouble, especially with nitrous. The plan is to get an honest-to-goodness, fast record in the books for the FIM.
“The first time I had nitrous on the bike I was so nervous. I was at full-chat – I couldn’t possibly get any more out of the engine – and then I hit the nitrous button and it just went whoosh! It was just glorious – super-joyful. I was giggling all the way back to the pits.”
The 2026 Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials take place between 23-27 August.
