High-speed motorcycle racer dies in 285 mph crash

LIMESTONE, Maine Officials say a Florida motorcycle racer trying to top 300 mph died after losing control and crashing at an annual speed trial event in northern Maine.

The Loring Timing Association says 44-year-old Bill Warner of Wimauma, Fla., crashed Sunday during The Maine Event, a race being held on a runway at the former Loring Air Force Base.

Race Director Tim Kelly says Warner was clocked at 285 mph before he lost control. He says Warner was conscious and talking as he was taken from the scene but died later at a hospital.

According to the Bangor Daily News in Maine, a witness said he saw Werner veered off the track to the right. The Loring Timing Association instructs racers to veer off to the right if they are injured or if their vehicle is on fire.

"He got maybe 4,000 feet or so, and where I was standing at the starting line, you could see a big dust cloud and then it got silent," Cole Theriault told the paper. "The bike, from what I heard, was demolished, just in pieces. After a minute, all you could hear was the sirens."

Warner rode a modified turbocharged Suzuki Hayabusa. He previously hit 311 mph on the same course in 2011, using 1.5 miles of pavement. This time he was trying to hit 300 mph using just a mile of pavement.

"There is no fame, no glory, no money in this," Warner had said before the 2011 drive, captured in a YouTube video. "My prize is hearing from you guys and getting my hand shaken by you."

Warner had survived a motorcycle crash in 2011, at the Texas Mile. He was going 110 mph and suffered a broken scapula, four broken ribs, a punctured lung, severe tissue damage and other injuries, according to a statement published on CycleDrag.com.