New World and National Records For BMW Motorcycles Andy Sills and Erin Hunter Pilot the BMW S 1000 RR to New Heights at Bonneville

Woodcliff Lake, NJ – September 5, 2012… Legendary landspeed racer Andy Sills claimed another world record riding solo on a 2012 BMW S 1000 RR at the BUB Motorcycle Speed Trials on August 29.  Sills recorded a flying mile two-way average speed of 204.784 mph, setting a new FIM record in the Partially Streamlined Naturally Aspirated 1000 cc class at the famed Bonneville Salt Flats, west of Salt Lake City, Utah.  Sills bested the previous world record set in 2009 by more than four-and-a-half miles per hour.

Erin Hunter, also an accomplished landspeed racer and ambassador for women in the sport, set an AMA national record on the same BMW S 1000 RR with a top speed of 207.758 and a two-way average of 205.566 mph (besting the previous record by over six miles per hour) at the Bonneville event. 

“We’ve had the good fortune to race a number of different bikes throughout our careers, including streamliners,” commented Erin, “and the BMW S 1000 RR is incredibly stable at high speeds.  The super stable platform allows us to focus on our racing skills without having to worry about the performance of the bike.  You can trust it and go all out.”

 “Andy and Erin contacted me about a week before the trials and asked if I could provide them with an S 1000 RR for Bonneville,” said Gary Orr, co-owner and general manager of San Diego BMW Motorcycles.  “We’ve been successfully prepping race bikes for them for the past several years, so we were happy to help them out again.”

Orr and his mechanics took the production bike and installed a BMW HP Race Powerkit, a LeoVince SBK exhaust pipe, and race body work.  In the meantime, Brock’s Performance shipped Orr a suspension lowering kit.  With little time to spare, the race-ready S 1000 RR was delivered to Andy and Erin the day before they left for Bonneville.  The couple had FastSkinz race vinyl added to the bike at the BUB event.

Now in its 9th year, the Bonneville BUB Motorcycle Speed Trials continue to be solely dedicated to motorcycles. The event offers world and national record breaking opportunities and attracts top contenders in many classes.

Andy Sills and Erin Hunter are avid high-speed riders with a combined 17 years of landspeed racing competition.  Together, they have earned 19 world and national landspeed records with streamliner motorcycles as well as traditional race bikes.  They hold a Guinness World Record for the fastest speed on a motorcycle ridden by two people simultaneously – a record achieved on a 2011 BMW S 1000 RR reaching an average two-way speed of 181.426 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats where Andy was the rider for the qualification run (with Erin as the pillion passenger) and  they switched for the record return run – with Erin as the rider and Andy as the pillion passenger.  Erin also is named in the Guinness Book of World Records as the fastest female with a World Record in a streamliner motorcycle.

Andy became known in the BMW community in 2005 for setting the FIM land speed record of approximately 176 mph on the BMW K 1200 S at Bonneville, during BUB’s Speed Trials.  The dynamic duo will continue to race the 2012 S 1000 RR this year and next with the goal of setting new speed records.  Avid BMW riders, their San Francisco garage also houses an HP2 Sport, an R1200 S and a K 1300 S.

BMW Group In America

BMW of North America, LLC has been present in the United States since 1975.  Rolls-Royce Motor Cars NA, LLC began distributing vehicles in 2003.  The BMW Group in the United States has grown to include marketing, sales, and financial service organizations for the BMW brand of motor vehicles, including motorcycles, the MINI brand, and the Rolls-Royce brand of Motor Cars; DesignworksUSA, a strategic design consultancy in California; a technology office in Silicon Valley and various other operations throughout the country.  BMW Manufacturing Co., LLC in South Carolina is part of BMW Group’s global manufacturing network and is the exclusive manufacturing plant for all X5 and X3 Sports Activity Vehicles and X6 Sports Activity Coupes.  The BMW Group sales organization is represented in the U.S. through networks of 338 BMW passenger car BMW Sports Activity Vehicle centers, 139 BMW motorcycle retailers, 115 MINI passenger car dealers, and 32 Rolls-Royce Motor Car dealers.  BMW (US) Holding Corp., the BMW Group’s sales headquarters for North America, is located in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.

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