Rollie Free
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Rolland "Rollie" Free (born Kansas, died California 1984) was a motorcycle racer best known for breaking the motorcycle land speed record in 1948 on the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah.
After an early career in motorcycle retail, Free became a regional racer of the 1920’s and 30’s on Indian Motorcycles. In 1923, Free competed in his first national motorcycle race, the 100-Mile National Championships on the board track in Kansas City, finishing but unplaced. He developed his career in longer distance events, and raced in the very first Daytona 200 on the Daytona Beach Road Course in 1937.
He joined the United States Air Force as a mechanic during the Second World War; during this time, he was stationed at Hill Field in Utah, where he first saw the Bonneville Salt Flats. After World War II, Free continued racing the soon-to-be defunct Indian motorcycles in long-distance and sprint record attempts, as well as dirt track racing on Triumphs.
On the morning of September 13, 1948, Free raised the motorcycle speed record by riding the very first Vincent HRD Black Lightning, owned by the California sportsman John Edgar and sponsored by Mobil Oil, to a speed of 150.313 m.p.h. Special features included the first-ever Vincent use of a rear shock absorber, the first Mk II racing cams, and horizontally-mounted racing carbs. Free had already developed a style of removing the seat from his mount, and lying flat prone along the back spine – thereby minimizing wind resistance, and placing most weight over the rear wheel.
To protect himself and allow comfort when in such a position, Free had developed special protective clothing. However, when his leathers tore from early runs at 147 mph, he discarded them and made a final attempt without jacket, pants, gloves, boots or helmet. Free lay flat on the motorcycle wearing only a Speedo bathing suit, a shower cap, and a pair of borrowed sneakers – inspired by friend Ed Kretz. This resulted not only in the record, but also one of the most famous photographs in motorcycling history, the "bathing suit bike" shot taken from a speeding car alongside his run on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.
The Vincent Lightning used is sometimes mistaken for a SeriesB machine, having the stamp BB on its engine casing – but is in actual fact a works modified machine, and recognized as the first of 30 Lightnings. The bike remained racing in the United States until the mid 1960s, and now resides virtually intact in Texas.
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.
