Fred Ludlow

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Fred Ludlow (born August 23, 1895 in Los Angeles , † 1984 ) was an American motorcycle racer who was the first to achieve a speed of over 200 km / h on a motorcycle in 1924.

Life

He earned his living working as a truck driver in order to fulfill his dream of motorcycle racing. At the age of 16 he took part in his first races, was successful and in 1914 became a works driver for Indian on the Indian track racing machine . Among other things, the oval track of the Playa del Rey circuit in Los Angeles was his area of ​​application; In 1916 and 1917 he mainly drove long-distance races. In April 1918 he was drafted into the First World War and for a Signal Corp in Europe; he returned from Europe in August 1919 and was recruited by Harley-Davidson as a factory rider. He drove in the racing department of Harley-Davidson, which later became famous as the "Wrecking Crew", which "crushed" all oval track races and records and which gathered the most famous US racing drivers of the 1920s, including Ralph Hepburn, Otto Walker, Red Parkhurst and Ray Weishaar. In 1998 Ludlow was inducted into the AMA Hall of Fame .

Races and records

On September 19, 1921, Ludlow managed to take five wins in five races in the famous Syracuse Mile Race in New York against the assembled elite of drivers. In 1922, Ludlow was fired from Harley-Davidson and moved to Indian as a mechanic. In 1923 he became a motorcycle policeman with the South Pasadena Police Department and took part in various record drives in the following period. On October 20, 1924, he achieved 127.1  mph (204.547 km / h) in a Henderson in San Bernardino on the Cajon Pass Highway . Ludlow was the first to officially go over 200 km / h on a motorcycle.

In 1938 Indian tried to achieve the absolute speed record with the Indian Arrow Streamliner . Attempts to do this failed; Ludlow couldn't compensate for the undercarriage unrest.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Helmut Krackowizer : Milestones in motorcycle history . Motorbuch Verlag Stuttgart, 1st edition 1987, ISBN 3-613-01141-7 , p. 42.
  2. ^ Ludlow makes 127 mph with stock type Henderson in so. Calif , motorcyclistonline.com, accessed October 31, 2014.
  3. ↑ a b Fred Ludlow , motorcyclemuseum.org (accessed October 31, 2014)
  4. ↑ 1938 Indian Arrow Streamliner ( Memento of the original from December 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on October 31, 2014)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.motorcyclemuseum.org
personal data
SURNAME Ludlow, Fred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American motorcycle racer, motorcycle world record holder (1924)
DATE OF BIRTH August 23, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH los Angeles
DATE OF DEATH 1984