Rollie Free Hall of Fame in 1998. Rollie Free Roland "Rollie" Free (November 18, 1900 – October 11, 1984) was a motorcycle racer best known for breaking the American motorcycle land speed record in 1948 on the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah. The picture of Free, prone and wearing a bathing suit, has been described as the most famous picture in motorcycling. After an early career in motorcycle retail, Free became a regional racer of the 1920s and 30’s on Indian motorcycles. In 1923, Free tried out for his first national motorcycle race, the 100-Mile National Championships on the board track in Kansas
Land speed racing a record attempt in order to monopolize the salt flats for the day and block one of his competitors from making a record attempt. The current women's absolute record is held by Kitty O'Neil, in the jet-powered "SMI Motivator", set at the Alvord Desert in 1976. O'Neil reached . There is no "wheel-driven" category as such. The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile validates records in a variety of classes, of which the "wheel-driven" classes are in Category A (Special cars) and Category B (Production cars). The accepted record is fastest average speed recorded over any one-mile or one-kilometer distance, averaged over