a final attempt without a jacket, pants, gloves, boots, or helmet. Free lay flat on the motorcycle wearing only a bathing suit, a shower cap, and a pair of borrowed sneakers – inspired by his friend Ed Kretz. This resulted not only in the record, but also produced one of the most famous photographs in motorcycling history, the "bathing suit bike." The photo was taken from a speeding car driven parallel to his run on the Bonneville Salt Flats. The Vincent used is sometimes mistaken for a Series B machine, having the stamp BB on its engine casing – but is actually a works-modified machine, and recognized as the first, or prototype of 30 Lightnings. The bike remained racing in the United States until the mid-1960s, and then resided virtually intact in the private collection of Herb Harris of Austin, Texas. The bike was sold from the Harris collection in November 2010 for a rumored $1.1 million, among the highest price ever paid privately for a motorcycle. Free later moved to California and, after his racing career faded, worked in the auto servicing industry. He died in 1984 and was posthumously inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998. Notes 1900 births 1984 deaths American motorcycle racers Motorcycle land speed record people