Life in the Fast Lane – A Family Affair

© 2010 By Edward Winterhalder and Wil De Clercq
(Excerpts from the upcoming book Biker Chicz of North America)

Mitchell, South Dakota’s Laura Klock is a wife, mom, business owner and a biker – the really fast kind. Legal, too! Laura is the kind of woman who is not afraid to try new things in life and meet challenges head-on. Taking up the dangerous sport of land speed racing on motorcycles, when she was well into her thirties, is just one of the many challenges Laura has embraced and tamed. No small feat in a sport that is mostly associated with men and high risk.

Although women have made many inroads in the sport of motorcycle racing, for all intents and purposes it is still a bastion of maleness. Women are not always welcomed into this macho world with open arms, especially at the pro level. This attitude, however, did little to dissuade Laura from heading out to the famous Bonneville Salt Flats to do what she likes doing best…riding a motorcycle at top speed!

In September 2006, Laura and her soon to be fiancé Brian Klock set off for Bonneville, Utah, to put their custom touring bike through the paces: partly out of interest to see just how fast the bike could go, and partly to promote their business Klock Werks Kustom Cycles, which had built the machine. When all was said and done, Laura had set a new AMA National Land Speed Record in her first two passes, which earned the bike the title of the “World’s Fastest Bagger.”

“It’s been my experience in the discipline of land speed racing that it is much more about camaraderie and the quest to get the most out of your motorcycle than big egos. When it comes to setting speed records, the machines are really the star. In many cases they are a thing of beauty and are simply awe-inspiring. And the riders and teams get pretty creative in the quest for just one more mile per hour. It’s amazing to see. Setting speed records is a real team effort. Everybody, including the competition, is so accommodating because they want to see you do well. People seem genuinely interested in what you’re riding and what you’re doing to make it faster. I love the spirit of the people on the salt flats,” Laura said.

Buoyed by her success, Laura piloted the same bike in 2007 to an SCTA National Land Speed Record of 146.297 mph. In just two years, she had made a name for herself as one helluva fast lady; putting H-D baggers – hardly thought of as rockets – in a different light; helping boost Klock Werks Kustom Cycles to a higher profile and level of operation; and last but not least inspiring women – including her two teenage daughters Erika and Karlee – to set similar challenges for themselves.

After their initial Bonneville success in 2006, Laura and Brian not only wanted to return in 2007, to see if they could improve on their record, they decided to hold their wedding ceremony on the Salt Flats. And they figured it was also time to see if then 16-year-old Erika had the right stuff to tear down the flats and set a land speed record of her own. Knowing that some form of racing was in the girls’ future, Laura and Brian had fostered the idea of having them participate in land speed racing.

Although Karlee had also hoped to hit the flats in 2007 – all that’s required to race at Bonneville is a valid state issued drivers license – the event was scheduled just a few days prior to her fourteenth birthday, the legal age for obtaining a South Dakota drivers license. So instead she found herself coming along as a spectator and to lend moral support to her older sister and mom. When all was said and done, Laura handily established her second land speed record and Erika proudly brought home her first record riding a Buell Blast to a speed of 101 mph. This made Laura and Erika the first mother daughter team to hold records at the same time.

The following year, in 2008, Karlee was no longer just a crew member but a competitor as well. On a modified version of the bike her sister set a record on in 2007, Karlee claimed two separate AMA records: 107.391 mph in the M-PG 500 class, and 110.724 mph in the MPS-PG 500 class. Erika, riding a Buell S2, set a new AMA record of 130.392 mph in the P-PP 1350 class and Laura left Bonneville with yet another record: this time she averaged an impressive 153.592 mph, hitting a top speed overall of 161mph on the bagger.

Laura, Erika, and Karlee garnered another distinction with their accomplishments: they became the first mother-daughter-daughter trio in the history of land speed racing to hold records at the same time. And, we are happy to report, they repeated it again in 2009! Karlee, who now has an opportunity to ride a 200 mph turbo V-Rod on the drag strip in 2010, is attending the Lyn St. James Drivers Academy, and plans to run the V-Rod on the salt in 2010. Karlee has dreamed of joining the 200 MPH Club since she was in seventh grade; she just might do that sooner than we think!

“It’s a bit of a cliché but racing is indeed a metaphor for life. It’s kind of like sending your kids out into the world after having guided and sheltered them through their childhood. It’s that defining moment when you pray that everything you taught them along the way they are going to remember and put to use. You have to trust that you have done a really good job guiding them. Ultimately it’s not just about motorcycling and trying to set records. As a mom that’s the part that I really love about such an endeavor. The kids learn so much about themselves. They learn about other people, team spirit and working together with others. They learn how to handle both victory and defeat. These are things they are going to use in their lives,” explained Laura.

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