The first officially sanctioned Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) record was set in 1920, when Gene Walker rode an Indian on Daytona Beach at . The first FIM-sanctioned record to exceed Curtiss's 1907 speed did not occur until 1930, at Arpajon in France, when an OEC special with a 1,000cc supercharged JAP V-twin engine averaged over the required two-way runs. The 1930s saw an international battle between the BMWs ridden by Ernst Henne and various JAP-powered British motorcycles, with the penultimate pre-war record being taken in 1937 by Italy's Gilera, shortly before BMW set a final pre-war record of that stood for 14 years.
