"As spectators looked on, Mr. Warner roared off on his blue Suzuki Hayabusa..."

"... a customized, fiberglass-swathed model muscled up with a 1,200-horsepower engine."

About 4,000 feet down the track, after he had hit 285 m.p.h., the motorcycle veered to the right — the direction drivers usually turn if something is awry — headed into the grass and fell on its side, tossing Mr. Warner. Their speed had been so great that both man and machine slid, separately, for hundreds of feet. Mr. Warner, though conscious after the crash, died a short time later....