"That was the longest 12-hour workday any person could ever go through." (Harold Hinson Photo)

CONCORD, N.C. (April 3, 2001) – Chris Harkey, one of the nation’s top amateur cyclists, established a new outdoor world record for miles completed on a bicycle in a 12-hour period Tuesday at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, covering 276.37 miles or 192.72 laps around a 1.434-mile course on the inside of the superspeedway.

The distance Harkey pedaled would have taken him on a trip from Charlotte to Richmond, Va.

“That was the longest 12-hour workday any person could ever go through,” Harkey said moments after completing the record ride. “First there was the rain and then the wind. I was trying to figure out what else they were going to throw at me.

“The fifth and sixth hours were really tough,” Harkey continued. “The rain was coming down hard and I thought the day was over, but my trainer and coach Jim O’Brien talked me through it."

Starting at 6:21 a.m., the 29-year-old Mt. Pleasant resident battled morning rain and a stiff afternoon breeze to shatter the previous record of 272.06 miles set by Paul Solon at an outdoor velodrome in Arizona. Harkey rode a new bicycle designed by former Tour De France winner and U.S. cycling legend Greg LeMond.

Harkey in Lowe's Motor Speedway's victory circle with facility president H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler (left) and biking coach Jim O'Brien. (Harold Hinson Photo)

Breaking the record was vindication for Harkey who fell just 1.79 miles short of the mark during a similar attempt here last year.

“I never really knew for sure if we could do it,” Harkey noted. “But Jim and the crew kept me going and all the sacrifices over the years paid off here today.”When asked how he kept Harkey motivated through such adverse conditions, O’ Brien said, “Chris is a great athlete, but it’s real easy to say, ‘I quit.’“It was my job to see that he didn’t quit and the way you do that is to point out the thousands of hours that he spent preparing to do this. You don ’t give those thousands of hours up. Yes, it was raining hard. Yes, it was miserable. Yes, he was hurting, but the fact remained that he had put thousands and thousands of hours into this and one of us wasn’t going to let him throw it away.

“All we had to do was get him through that hour of rain. Then the sun came out and he rocked the rest of the day,” O’Brien concluded.

H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler, president and general manager of Lowe’s Motor Speedway, is an avid cyclist and the brainchild behind the record attempt that leads into the speedway’s annual Food Lion AutoFair, April 5-8. Wheeler presented Harkey with a $5,000 award for his record-breaking effort.

“I am so excited for Chris,” Wheeler said, moments after Harkey crossed the line to establish the record. “I was broken-hearted when he came so close last year. He is a great athlete and cyclist and I am extremely proud of what he accomplished here today.”