‘Speed addict’ Zef set for record bid on frozen lake
HAVING set speed records on Tarmac and sand, Zef Eisenberg and the Madmax Race Team are now aiming to break the 200mph barrier on ice.
On 1 and 2 March, the Guernsey-based team will travel 2,000 miles to Arsunda in Sweden for the famous speed weekend, at which some of the best ice racers in the world will be competing for the fastest flying kilometre on a track set out on a five-mile frozen lake.
Each year, the event is booked up in 10 minutes.
This will be the first time that a Guernsey/UK-based team has tackled the ice speed weekend, and the team’s supercharged Suzuki Hayabusa has had to be specially adapted for the challenge.
The 350bhp machine reached 230mph on tarmac in September 2018.
For Arsunda, hundreds of hand-made titanium spikes have been bolted to the tyres, along with a stainless-steel carcass needed to stop the centrifugal forces ripping the tyre apart.
While each spike weighs only 7.5g, at 200mph centrifugal force takes that to the equivalent of 10.5kg. There are 200 studs per tyre.
The tyres took 40 hours to build by hand.
The temperature will be between minus 20 and 30C, with wind-chill factor at maximum speed that will become minus 49C.
‘Arsunda presents a whole new set of challenges,’ said Mr Eisenberg.
‘But we’ve put a lot of time and effort into the preparations – even my girlfriend, Mirella, has been helping put the Ti spikes into the tyres for nights on end. We are excited to get out there and see how the bike performs.’
The Guinness record for a motorbike on ice stands at 300kmh or 187.5mph.
On 6 and 7 April, Mr Eisenberg will also return to Pendine Sands, South Wales, to contest his own world sand record title on board the machine that is dubbed The Green Monster.
He set the record last year, just 20 months after surviving Britain’s fastest-ever motorcycle crash at 230mph.
He spent three months in hospital, followed by three months in a wheelchair, but defied the odds to race again in under a year.
‘This year, I’m devoting my records to Mind, the mental health charity, that supports people in dark places, a place I understand only too well, after my life-threatening crash.’
Since the crash, he has set 13 new UKTA/ACU speed records, including the ACU-sanctioned flying quarter-mile, flying kilometre, flying mile.
‘I’m well and truly a speed addict,’ he said.
‘It’s in my blood. Those who are addicted to speed will understand – it’s all about the quest to overcome the challenge and battle the laws of physics.’