DRAPER — Most Utahns thought they would have to wait until 2002 to see luge records broken, but a different breed of the sport came barreling through Draper Wednesday at record-setting speeds.
With TV cameras for "Ripley's Believe it or Not" tracking him the whole way, Billy Copeland made street luge history by smashing his own Guinness speed record for the rocket street luge.
"Utah has always been known as the place to set land-speed records, so it's only fitting that the rocket-luge record is broken here," Copeland said.
Copeland was clocked at 98.5 mph, easily beating his own former rocket street-luge record of 70 mph.
Riding alongside was Tom Mason, who was looking to beat his record of 81.28 mph for the regular street luge. Mason consistently hit speeds of 79 and 80 mph but could not quite top his record mark.
The street luge, which has gained popularity on cable-TV's ESPN X-Games, is performed much like the ice luge. For equipment, the street luge requires a helmet, a leather suit with no padding and a luge that looks much like an 8-foot-long skateboard.
The rocket luge is the same as the street luge, but it comes equipped with 24 rocket boosters on the back. Mason likened Copeland's luge to Wile E. Coyote strapping a rocket to his back.
Even though the actual luging may seem similar for both the street and ice versions of the sport, the street luge cranks the danger quotient up a few notches. "The ice luge is a whole different sport contained in a tube where you can only hit walls," Mason said. "With this street luge course today, there's only a rusty metal guard rail. In luge, you make a mistake, you can slide it out; in street luge, you're dead."
There was a tense moment in the race when Copeland set off his rockets and started to fishtail dangerously close to the guard rail, but he was able to regain control in time, put on the brakes — his thick-soled tennis shoes — and come to a full stop a quarter-mile later.
Still, the burst of speed was what he needed to take the record. "Once I hit those rockets, I stop being a driver and become a passenger," Copeland said.
Going head-to-head, Mason completed the course first, but it was Copeland's rockets that got the all-important speed record.
While both Mason and Copeland were in town to break separate records, they both ran the course at the same time, making it a bit of a showdown; Hollywood could not have scripted a better match-up.
Mason is a television and movie stuntman from Los Angeles who is widely known as a "bad boy" in street luging, because he introduced a rougher way of riding and competing than the sport was used to early on. Mason relies on his precision-driving expertise to win his races.
Copeland comes from Ashland, Tenn., a town of 5,000 people, where he has worked for the past 20 years at a label factory. For Copeland's run down the hill, it was all about power.
Mason admitted his head-to-head race against the rocket luge was a race he was loath to lose. Copeland took a more diplomatic approach. "It's like racing a sailboat versus a speedboat," Copeland said. "I'm not so much into the racing end of it as I am the exhibition of it."
Both men gained an interest in street luging after seeing it on the X-Games. Mason, who is also a motorcross racer, got a friend to show him the street-luging ropes, and after one ride, was hooked. Once he caught the bug, Mason began to train the only way he could in California, under the cover of darkness.
"You have to do it where the traffic is light," Mason said. "The key is you don't want drivers to see you or you'll startle them."
Copeland's road to racing started with the regular street luge in 1992, but soon after, he decided to make some changes. "In Tennessee, there aren't the hills there are out West, and I kept hearing the guys out West talking about going 70 and 80 mph," Copeland said. "One day, I was watching a rocket show, and it came to me. I wanted to go faster and started messing with the rockets just to see if it would work."
While most would see the three-and-a-half mile stretch on Traverse Ridge Road in Draper as just another steep, winding road, to Mason this little-known street is a slice of perfection.
"I had always heard that this road was capable of world-record speeds," Mason said. "It's got a 10 percent grade and some nice turns."
Even with all of the cameras, the showcase race, the records on the line and the crowds, Copeland said it really was just "a couple guys just trying to have fun."
"I have six teens living at home and work a full-time job," Copeland said. "This is relaxing."
Mason, a television and movie stuntman, echoed the same sentiment. "When I get back to work they'll be throwing me out of windows, so this is a nice break."
The segment on the race can be seen on "Ripley's Believe it or Not" on TBS sometime this summer.
E-MAIL: pthunell@desnews.com