Bill Warner, motorcycle racer, dies trying to top 300 MPH speed record

Bill Warner died Sunday after losing control of his motorcycle. He was 44.

Warner holds the world speed record for a conventional motorcycle at 311 miles per hour. Warner was trying to break his own record when he lost control of the cycle and zoomed off a runway at Loring Air Force Base in Limestone, Maine.

Warner clocked in at 285 miles per hour before the accident. He was conscious for an hour before he died in a Caribou, Maine hospital.

"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," said Tim Kelly, race director of the Loring Timing Association.

The Limestone Police Department and Maine state police are investigating the crash.