Ups & Downs

Ups & Downs

UP: To Jay Leno, for off-loading one of his many motorcycles to help the victims of last September’s terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. The “Tonight Show” host auctioned off his celebrity-autographed 2001 HarleyDavidson Dyna Low Rider on e-Bay last October, raising a whopping $360,200 for the Twin Towers Fund. “God bless that person for helping out,” the comedian said of winning bidder Frank Davis. The New Mexico resident also took home a matching Ford Harley-Davidson F-150 SuperCrew pickup truck.

UP: To Don Vesco, for putting his name in the record books-again. Piloting his gas-turbine-powered Turbinator streamliner last October at Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats, the long-time racer captured the FIA World Land Speed Record with an average speed of 458.440 mph. The run smashed the 1964 mark set by the late Donald Campbell by more than 55 mph. The seemingly ageless Vesco will attempt to top the 500-mph mark this year, then try to reclaim the 322-mph bike record, which is currently held by David Campos.

DOWN: To “investigative hiker” John Gatchell, for his bombastic approach to trail use. Gatchell, conservation director of the Montana Wilderness Association, is against motorized travel on public lands. “You mix gasoline and testosterone, and you get an ATV out of it,” the 48-year-old Detroit native griped to the Los Angeles Times’ Deborah Schoch, who was reporting on how environmental backlash has spread to one of the nation’s most remote states. Happily, not everyone agrees with Gatchell’s way of thinking. “Many riders are native Montanans who grew up on farms,” wrote Schoch, “and they appreciate a trail vehicle that requires no water and no hay.”