Victory Motorcycle Breaks BUB Speed Record

Patience, persistence and a wickedly powerful Victory Freedom engine helped Gregor Moe set a new national speed run record of 165.8 mph on a Victory Motorcycle September 3 at the BUB Motorcycle Speed Trials on the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Moe ran a timed mile at 166.004 mph on the Victory Kingpin, then backed it up with a run at 165.6 mph, giving him the average of 165.8 mph that goes into the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) record books for the 2000-M-AG class. The class includes bikes of up to 2000cc with modified frames that are gas-powered but do not use turbochargers or superchargers. The previous class record of 163 mph had stood since 1973.

“It’s a good feeling and it’s good to get it done. It’s been a long time coming and it’s a lot of work,” said Moe, who is from Buffalo, Minnesota. “This was my third time at Bonneville. I went out in ‘04 to the first BUB event with a buddy and ran my 2003 Victory Vegas at about 119 mph in the ‘Run What You Brung’ class. That was the fastest Victory pass for a number of years.”

In 2008 he returned to Bonneville with his record-setting Kingpin, but broke a piston while building up speed for the timed mile. The engine was rebuilt at Lloydz Motorworkz, the Pine Bush, N.Y., Victory performance shop by Lloyd Greer and Adam Torchio.

The Victory Freedom engine has a modified displacement of 110-cubic inch engine and a Lloydz cam package, intake and fuel mapping.

“Adam built a different pipe for it, too, a 2-into-1 that wouldn’t interfere with my feet,” Moe said. “I installed some rear set-type pegs to get my feet back and get me lower.”

Moe ran the bike at the Maxton Mile earlier this year and attained a speed of 159.7 mph.

“Maxton was our shake-down to make sure the bike works,” Moe said. “Of course, the driver’s got to get familiar with the machine to make it go, and we made several passes there and it got better every pass. It ran well at Maxton so there was no reason to make any changes for Bonneville.”

With only minor changes such as a redesigned custom seat, he and his crew of fellow Victory Riders “Sparky Bill” Toninato, Jeff Ingebritson and John Ritter headed to Bonneville.

The salt was wet when they arrived, but dried in the Utah sun each day, providing a faster and faster surface. Moe was near the front of the line late on Wednesday, September 2, when the day’s session ended. He retained his place in line for the final half day of speed runs on September 3, so he got to make his runs in cooler air that let his engine produce more power.

“The first run on Thursday, we didn’t quite get her done. We ran around 159 [mph],” he said. “We made an adjustment we’d been talking about and got back in line. Our next pass was 166[.004], which broke the old record and entitled us to make a return run to back the record up.”

His return run on Bonneville’s International Course produced a speed of 165.6 mph, giving him two runs over the old class record and a new mark of 165.8 mph.

“Setting a new record makes the ride home from the salt a lot more enjoyable,” Moe said. “If we had finished second, the drive home to Minnesota would have seemed like an eternity.”

Victory Vision Posts Potential Record Speed

World record holder Laura Klock rode a stock Victory Vision at the BUB event and posted a top speed of 122 mph, which she backed up with a run at 120 mph. Final notification from the BUB officials is pending, but the crew at Klock Werks Kustom Cycles in Mitchell, S.D., believes Laura set a record. She already held the record for the world’s fastest bagger, and two of her daughters also hold speed run records.

Whether she is credited with a record for her Victory Vision speed, she achieved one goal of generating greater participation by women riders. The number of women entered at this year’s BUB event was significantly greater than in the previous five years.