World-record holding motorcyclist Bill Warner died from injuries at the hospital Sunday after losing control of his bike at 285 miles per hour.
WCSH-TV's reporter Bill Green was at Loring Air Force Base in Maine and spoke to the 44-year-old just 10 minutes before the fatal crash.
In this July 2011 photo, Bill Warner poses for a photo during the Maine Event. Warner died Sunday, July 14, 2013, after losing control and zooming off a runway during the Maine Event at a former U.S. air base at Limestone, Maine. Warner, 44, was clocked at 285 mph before he lost control, said Tim Kelly, race director for the Loring Timing Association. (Photo: AP/Linda Kelly)
"The bike that I have has a tremendous amount of power, so by getting to 300 we just can't turn up the power," Warner said. "We actually are turning it down to try and get the bike to settle down. And now, after we turned it down enough that I can handle it, I just turn it up a little bit at a time and we've gotten 296 (mph). So, we've got just a little bit more to go but hopefully we can keep it on the ground."
Green asked Warner before the accident what it's like at 290 mph.
"It's really scary," Warner said, adding that it is also fun.
Bill Warner makes a run on his motorcycle during The Maine Event on a runway at a former air base Sunday, July 14, 2013, at Limestone, Maine. Warner, 44, of Wimauma, Fla., died Sunday after losing control and zooming off a runway on a later run. (Photo: AP/Peter Freeman)
Watch the brief interview from just a few minutes before Warner took his last ride:
Riding his modified turbocharged Suzuki Hayabusa, Warner previously hit 311 mph on the same course in 2011, using 1.5 miles of pavement. That's considered to be the world land speed record for a conventional motorcycle, Kelly said.
This time he was trying to hit 300 mph using just a mile of pavement, and he'd made several passes before the one in which he crashed, Tim Kelly, race director the Loring Timing Association, which hosted "The Maine Event" said.
Warner was conscious and talking after the crash just before 10 a.m., Kelly said, but he died about an hour and 15 minutes later at a hospital in Caribou.
"No one will touch Bill's achievements or be the type of racer he was. He was a personal friend and the land-racing community is less for his loss," Kelly said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
(H/T: CNN)
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