World’s Fastest Woman

Bud and Leslie

I happened to meet Leslie Porterfield at the Progressive Show in New York City on Friday (in a rare moment standing still). Leslie was 2008 AMA Racing Female Rider of the Year and is a member of the Bonneville 200 mph club. She holds several land speed records and officially became the Guinness Book of World Records’ Fastest Woman on a Motorcycle with her land speed record set at Bonneville in 2008. Leslie is the owner of High Five Cycles, a motorcycle dealership in downtown Dallas. She has been riding and racing motorcycles for sixteen years.

At The Office

Leslie gave a great talk at the show about some of what it takes to go 240 mph on a motorcycle at Bonneville, about the camaraderie of the people who risk everything to set records there, about the push-back that accompanies being a woman setting records in what some backward thinkers still believe is a man’s sport, and about her desire to become the World’s fastest person on a motorcycle. Leslie told us she’s not only the fastest woman on a motorcycle but also the slowest, registering 9 mph on a Ruckus (paying homage to Rollie Free who broke the American land speed record on a motorcycle in 1948 in the photo below).

We wish Leslie luck, it was a pleasure meeting such a truly pleasant person, role model and ambassador for the sport. Please click here to visit her website.