Ralph Hudson:
CLASS OF 1969
Temple City High SchoolClass of 1969
Temple city, CA
Ralph's Story
Life
After high school, attended PCC for about six weeks, when I was offered the position of service manager at Temple City Kawasaki for, get this, $3.50 an hour. I thought that was pretty cool,besides I could always go back to school, right? I worked there for almost ten years and had really gotten tired of dealing with the public, nobody was happy when they brought in their broken bike and I just didn't enjoy it any more. One of the customers, who worked in TV advertising, thought that I might enjoy being a grip. He introduced me to a production company, which let me hang around when they were shooting commercials. The key grip was trying to get his son in the union, so he wanted nothing to do with me. But, I met the propmaster and started helping him. I didn't mention before but I had done a bit of motorcycle racing, built my own equipment and had a welding/machine shop in my garage. I kept telling the prop guy that I could build stuff and finally got a chance start making small mechanical props, talking cake, dancing mailboxes, you know, the silly stuff they did live before the silly stuff was done by computer. Eventually, I was getting enough work that I was able to leave the motorcycle shop. I worked for about three years out of my garage doing all kinds of funny little props, a couple of Ford trucks spots, lots of fun if you like to build things. I went to work for a large shop in Pasadena that built oversize props and Rose Parade floats. For them, I got to build a roller coaster with a loop in it for Honda, back around '81 or '82. Had a great time there, got to travel a little, New York, Germany, Korea, New Orleans and many trips to the great Mojave desert. After seventeen years, decided I wanted to start my own business, thought I'd better try it before it was time to retire. Have been in business 1997, we build museum exhibits, a few parade floats for Disney and just about anything we can find. Things slowed down pretty bad after 9/11, but we managed to keep our heads above water. In 1980, I got married to a girl who had a 7yr old daughter, we had a son in '84. Separated in '92, shared custody of our son, David. I thoroughly enjoyed his childhood, he was really a good kid, played sports, got good grades, it's probably the best experience of my life. I just added a picture of my son, he's a such great guy. He has since graduated from UCLA and worked with me while he was looking for a "real" job. He's now on staff with Red Bull (the energy drink people) in Santa Monica.
I haven't updated this profile for a few years.....apparently. I've been building and riding bikes at The Bonneville Salt Flats since 2009. One of my life goals was to join the 200 MPH Club. You not only have to go 200, you have to set a record. I had had an idea about how to build streamlined bodywor...Expand for more
k for a bike since 1976, but had never tried it. After telling people about it and drawing it on countless cocktail napkins, I decided it was time to try. I didn't want to be that guy who always talked about it, but never did it. It actually worked! Got a record my first year. However, I also caught salt fever and have built a new bike, to try for a new record every year. Seven records in four years. Last year, 2012, my 1000cc Suzuki went 242 mph. This year, the bike has a turbocharger and makes more than twice the horsepower. We leave in 4 days and are hoping to hit a speed somewhere in the high 200's.
That last update must have been from 2013, I crashed that year at 218 mph. It didn't end too badly, some torn tendons in my shoulder and a skin graft on my left arm. :-(
I'm not smart enough to quit.....even with my great TCHS education!
In November of 2016, I was able to set a record at El Mirage Dry Lake of 266 mph. The fastest motorcycle record........ ever. I'm still smiling about that! This type of bike is referred to as a sit-on bike, as opposed to the streamliners that you lay inside of. The fastest sit-on record at the Bonneville Salt Flats is only 262 mph, so I have high hopes of beating that speed. Speeds at Bonneville are normally 20 - 30 mph higher than El Mirage, but the salt has been depleted by decades of mining potash out of the salt. So, again, we'll have to see.
New news for 2017. I attended the inaugural land speed race at Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia this year. The short version of the story is I have now set a new record (pending ratification) at 284.361 mph. This is the fastest record ever set, by an open bike, on a natural surface. It is the average of two runs, in opposite directions, within two hours. The fastest one direction run was 289 mph. Crazy, isn't it? It was a great week, made friends, made some history, although it's not widely known outside of the land speed community, which is rather small.
A real big fish, small pond situation, but I'm still pretty happy about it. It's not everyday that you have the opportunity to do something, that's never been done.....in the history of..... ever!
In November of 2017, I was invited to attend the FIM Awards Gala in Andorra, to be recognized for the world record set at Salar de Uyuni, in Bolivia, in August of 2017. It was great, Everyone we met assumed my son was the rider, so it was fun to surprise them by telling them, no, the rider is the old guy! We visited Barcelona and Rome for a few days after the banquet. It was amazing!
. If anyone is interested in more motorcycle pics, there are more images on FB. Under my name and also at Ironwood Racing, there are even a few race reports. I know this doesn't interest everyone, but please feel free to take a look, if you like. :-) All the best, Ralph
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