WENDOVER, Utah - A 47-year-old record-setting motorcycle racer from Montana has died in a crash on the Bonneville Salt Flats.
Investigators weren't sure what caused Cliff Gullett of Bozeman, Mont., to lose control of the motorcycle Wednesday during a time trial. He was racing along at just under 385 kilometres an hour at the time.
The American Motorcyclist Association said on its website that Gullett was competing in the 500cc Streamliner class at the Salt Flats.
Drivers go for speed records every summer on the flats, an open space just east of the Nevada state line.
Gullett owned Team Bozeman Motorsports, a motorcycle and snowmobile dealership. He had set a handful of world land-speed records and wanted to eventually become the first to reach 400 mph, or almost 650 km/h, on a two-wheeled Streamliner.
Curt Lance, Team Bozeman's general manager, said "Cliff always told me that if anything happened on the Salt, he wanted it to be quick and not lingering. He died doing the thing he loved to do most - racing at Bonneville."