BREAKING OUT OF THE ASYLUM (part 2 of 2); Florida's Bike Week provides its usual, er, thrills.(News)

Byline: STEVEN COLE SMITH

Then, more entertainment as the crew tows two full-size house trailers onto the track. The show lags as Ruic stages a "slow motorcycle'' race, with fans, who have ridden their motorcycles into the infield, attempting to ride 50 feet as slow as possible without putting their feet down. Then there is the "always-popular weenie bite,'' as riders of large motorcycles, who are invariably male and with passengers on the back, invariably female, drive slowly under a string from which dangles a mustard-covered hot dog. The passenger stands up on the foot pegs and attempts to bite the weenie. One eventually does, but by then, most of the crowd has lost interest.

Finally, the "Trailer Trash.'' Elders drives the black Cadillac up a ramp, into the end of the trailer and not quite out the other end. Then Steel drives his car up a ramp, into the side of a second trailer and out the other side. As he hits, an assistant triggers a huge explosive charge, blowing one end of the trailer to bits. Unusually wide eyes among the help hint at a miscalculation of the explosives formula.

Death Wish Dan blows himself up in a silver casket, then leaps up, on fire. "Oh, no!'' Ruic says, mostly to himself. "He's burning! For the love of God, somebody put him out before he turns into a Smore!'' Dan is extinguished.

Then Jesse the Human Bomb lies atop two barstools, behind the white sheet, and blows himself up, landing about 10 feet away. He stands up, checks for the remaining testicle-it's there!-and the crowd applauds.

And then Indiana's Fred Sibley pulls his jet-powered Beer Wagon onto the track. It is basically a huge jet airplane engine, mounted on four rolling wheels, with a little red truck cab up front where Sibley, 70, sits, this time with his 10-year-old granddaughter, clad in her tiny orange fire suit.

Sibley, understandably hard of hearing, owns four jet vehicles, some of them built for speed, but this one is built for show. He pulls up in front of a white car with the hood open, a carcass of an old motorcycle sitting where the car's engine should be. The Beer Wagon backs up to the car, and Sibley hooks onto it with a huge chain. He lights the jet engine, lets it warm, then blasts the flaming jet onto the car. The hood peels back, and the insulation on the hood glows and burns.