Dan Parker lost his eyesight in a racing accident but never his thrill for speed. As a result, the former Pro Modified racer will attempt a Bonneville Land Speed record in August on the Salt Flats of Utah by driving a 50cc engine over 70.05 miles per hour

“I want to be the first blind man to ever run the salt flats,” Parker stated emphatically.

Parker and Sam Perry, along with the team at his motorcycle shop in Salem, Ala., are building a specially modified motorcycle trike [three-wheeler] with two wheels in the rear and one in the front. The trike will be powered by a 50 cc engine [roughly 3.05 cid], weigh in the neighborhood of 600 pounds with Parker astraddle with an estimated top speed of 75 miles per hour.

Dan Parker lost his eyesight in a racing accident but never his thrill for speed. As a result, the former Pro Modified racer will attempt a Bonneville Land Speed record in August on the Salt Flats of Utah by driving a 50cc engine over 70.05 miles per hour

“I want to be the first blind man to ever run the salt flats,” Parker stated emphatically.

Parker and Sam Perry, along with the team at his motorcycle shop in Salem, Ala., are building a specially modified motorcycle trike [three-wheeler] with two wheels in the rear and one in the front. The trike will be powered by a 50 cc engine [roughly 3.05 cid], weigh in the neighborhood of 600 pounds with Parker astraddle with an estimated top speed of 75 miles per hour.

Parker plans to attempt his historic record during the BUB Motorcycle Speed Trials in August. Until the day comes, Parker understands a lot of work must be completed for him to pull off this feat.

Currently Alan Dubney and Patrick Johnson at MFI Electronics are building a guidance system based on a high-grade GPS which will essentially keep Parker on track. He has complete faith in them, and figures if the government trusts them with their military contracts then he should too.

“It’s gonna give me feedback, it’s gonna have a plotted course, and it’s gonna give me feedback,” explained Parker. “When I start going to the right it’ll beep in my left ear, the further I go out, the higher intensity. If I go too far outside the boundaries it’ll shut the motorcycle off, and my chase vehicle will also have a remote shutoff. So if they see something going on, let’s say an oil leak or something like that that I can’t see, the chase vehicle will have the ability to shut me off.”

SUPPORTING THE QUEST FOR THE SALT

Star Racing
Sandy Kosman
Prozio Performance
Paul Gast World Wide Bearings
ASA Performance Micky Dymond along with Jamie Cheek from Scala Rider
Mickey Thompson Tires MFI Electronics
Vince Adams of Diversified Mechanical
Harry Williams
Josh Mackey
Josh Hedden
Jon Granberry
Bill George
Mark Sisk 
Lectron CarburetorParker is quick to point out this attempt isn’t a spur of the moment idea. He said he’s done his due diligence.

“I put months of thought into this whole process,” Parker added. “I started wanting to do this about last September/October. Being a racer I still have that drive and the desire to set goals and personal goals and accomplishment and achievement. And that’s never stopped with me.”

While the 50cc combination might not be the most intimidating engine, Parker said he chose the 50cc because it’s the slowest combination permitted to run on the Salt Flats. Then there’s the reality, Parker confirms, no blind person has ever attempted a record on the salts.

“I have to work through lobbying a little bit for them to let me on the salts,” Parker confirmed. 

Parker was critically injured on March 31, 2012, when he lost control of his Pro Modified Corvette during a test session in Steele, Ala. He was knocked unconscious in the accident and remained in a medically induced coma for 13 days. As he emerged from the coma, his eyesight slowly diminished and eventually went away completely. The loss of eyesight was first considered a damaged optic nerve but was later attributed to the severity of his head injury.

STAR RACING STEPS UP

For fabricator and past racer, Dan Parker, his dreams, goals and everyday life changed permanently on March 31, 2012, when a horrible accident left lasting injuries that would change his life forever.

The consequences of that day nearly one year ago would not diminish Parker’s aspirations, but instead would end up fueling them into something much greater – a chance to become the world’s first blind man to compete on the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Instead of taking a car to Bonneville, Parker decided his best option would be a 50 cc trike that he could run in the BUB Motorcycle Speed Trials, a motorcycle-only event in August.

After a 30-year friendship with Dan and his family, Motorcycle racing icon George Bryce and his Star Racing wanted to help in this process in any way possible, signing on as a major sponsor for the project.

“All through the years, Dan has always helped me anytime I had a question or anyone at our shop had a question. We would call him and he was always quick to help. He has been more than just a friend; he’s been a partner of sorts in lots of projects over the years.

“If our roles were reversed, I know that he would go out of his way to give me anything I needed. So, given our relationship and our position in the same industry, it makes perfect sense for Star Racing to be involved in a way that we can help Dan make his dream come true,” Bryce said.

Even for a company that receives frequent requests for sponsorship funding, it was a no-brainer for Star Racing to offer support for Parker’s Bonneville project.

“We get requests for sponsorship daily – e-mails, texts, Facebook messages – but with Dan, I was the one who called him and asked if we could be a sponsor as a small way to thank him for all he’s done for us. We want to help him get the parts he needs, give him testing capabilities using our dynos, get him to Bonneville and back safely, and whatever else he needs from us,” Bryce said.Doctors held out a slim hope his eyesight would be restored. Three months after the accident, doctors delivered the word his blindness was irreversible.

Instead of sulking about his diagnosed deficiency, Parker instead embraced life’s new normal and went back to work in his machine shop with the use of new tools designed for the sight-impaired. Parker’s Bonneville attempt is only a natural extension of his return to a life of somewhat normalcy.

The upcoming Bonneville experience is one Parker hopes will become the first of many steps to gaining a semblance of what used to be his life. Parker’s day-to-day adventures can be accessed on his FACEBOOK page.

“I want people to also realize that everything I’ve been through, you can still go forward with life,” said Parker. “On my Facebook page, it will surprise people, we document how many parts I actually make for the motorcycle frame and I’ve made parts in the mill machine, I’ve used a tubing bender. I’ve used the mill machine to fit tubes on the motorcycle. They whole layout I basically did in my head. And I built fixtures for the chassis jig for the Bonneville project. This has been something to keep me going.”

Parker’s quest has also benefitted from a bevy of supporters such as George and Jackie Bryce at Star Racing, Paul Gast of Fast by Gast, Mickey Thompson Tires, Sandy Coson at Coson Specialites, Alan Dudley and Patrick Johnson at MFI Electronics and Kevin Gilham from Electron Carburetors.

Parker admits there’s a little apprehension and right now the plan looks perfect on paper.

“The GPS system will automatically shut me off whenever I go through the finish line and also my chase vehicle will basically be guiding me once I go through the finish line, they’ll tell me to shut off if something happens,” Parker explain. “And like steer left, steer left to get off the course, to get off the motorcycle and take it back.”

He’s even practiced the run in his mind over and over.

“I’m a little nervous,” Parker admitted. Once I get the motorcycle, I’m going to Phoenix City Drag Strip where they have donated track time for me - navigating and getting used to going straight, getting used to shutting down, everything there. And then George [Bryce] said we might be able to get access to the Americas Airport and make some longer runs at the Americas Airport. I’ll definitely be one hundred percent comfortable on the bike and going straight before we make the long haul to the Bonneville Salt Flats.”

And, at the end of the journey Parker will hopefully be a pot of gold he’ll never see, but will feel. 

RELATED STORY - PARKER ADJUSTING TO LIFE'S NEW NORMAL


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