Marty Dickerson on his record-setting Vincent in 1953. He went 147 mph on what was basically a prodution bike. It took 20 years for the record to finally be broken by a factory Yoshimura Kawasaki Z1 in 1973 that went 155 mph.

If you saw “The World’s Fastest Indian” starring Anthony Hopkins, you already know what a great movie it was. The inspiring story of New Zealander Burt Munro, who fulfilled a lifelong wish of coming to America to run his beloved Indian on the Bonneville Salt Flats, is one of the best motorcycle movies ever made. If you haven’t seen the movie buy the DVD.

Marty Dickerson, the American speed ace famous for setting speed records aboard Vincents during the 1950s, helped Munro when the Kiwi came to the U.S. Four decades later he played an integral part in helping with the movie by supplying Anthony Hopkins with audio taped interviews of Munro that Dickerson recorded in the 1960s.

“I saw Anthony Hopkins during the filming at Bonneville and asked him if he’d listened to the tapes,” Dickerson said. “He said he had and thanked me, telling me it helped him learn a lot about Burt. I think he really captured Burt’s essence in the movie, so I was happy that I contributed in some way.”Dickerson said that he was originally supposed to have a small walk-on part in the movie, but a windstorm destroyed the set on the day he was to be filmed and he didn’t want to wait around three days while it was rebuilt.

Dickerson in 2003, 50 years after his record run. (Larry Lawrence photo)

When asked what Dickerson thought about actor Walton Goggins’ portrayal of him, Dickerson laughed and said, “He did a really good job and they even made him look like me. The only thing was he was a lot taller and skinner than I am and the actor who played Rollie Free was about a foot taller than Rollie and had hair, but other than that I thought they did a great job.”

In 1996, when Dickerson was 70-years-old, he brought out the trusty old Vincent for one final encore and set a vintage land speed mark.