Napier resident and insurance manager Walter Lands-Trevor has achieved a tremendous feat by setting the New Zealand 1050cc flying quarter-mile land-speed record of 321.8 km/h.
Lands-Trevor, product manager at Protecta Insurance, made his record-breaking run on March 20 at Goudies Road, near Reporoa, riding a 2011-model Kawasaki ZX10R.
According to Lands-Trevor, this is the first time a traditionally-aspirated vehicle has broken the 200 mi/h (321.8 km/h) mark on New Zealand soil, without the help of a supercharger.
The record has been verified by Motorcycling New Zealand, the sport’s governing body in the country. The previous holder for the 1050cc flying quarter-mile was Jon White from Christchurch, who reached 302.5 km/h while riding a Britten motorcycle on December 04, 1993.
As with any major achievement, setting the national record took years of preparation.
"It all started when my partner and her family had been heading away to the Bonneville Salt Flats (in the United states), where they set a car record over there in 2006 and they always told me there's a space in the container if I wanted to chuck a bike in there,” Rands-Trevor told Bikesport NZ.
"It snowballed from there. I eventually managed to source a Kawasaki ZX10 at a good price and realised that, with a few tweaks, it could be competitive.”
According to Rands-Trevor, he has been competing regularly in events in New Zealand since the inception of the New Zealand Landspeed Association in 2016.
Not one to rest on his laurels, Rands-Trevor is now looking forward to his next achievement.
“I achieved the 200mph 'pass' but not the 200mph average, so that's the aim for me next time,” he said. “So I will definitely keep working on the bike and keep chipping away at it.”
