Apr 2010 Vol. 13 No. 4

World’s fastest millwright: Broaddus aims for 200 mph

Millwright James Broaddus is chasing a dream-a really, really fast one.

James Broaddus, Millwrights Local 102, hit 161 miles per hour at races at the Bonneville Salt Flats in 2009.

Broaddus, a member of Millwrights Local 102, hopes to break a world speed record at the BUB Motorcycle Speed Trials at Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats, held from August 28 through September 2. He’ll be riding a 79-cubic-inch/1300cc mean machine that he and his partner Mikey Johnsen of J&B Racing in Auburn have been customizing and upgrading over the last couple of years.

How fast is really, really fast? "I’m trying for 200 miles per hour," says Broaddus, 54. The master mechanic’s laugh is ready, his voice low and gravelly, a bit like an idling Harley. "My dream is to go out and beat the big dogs with something I cobbled together in my backyard."

Last year, Broaddus hit 161 miles per hour. The record in his class, the 1350, APS PG Class (unlimited partial streamliner push rod gasoline), is 176. "I need to break a buck-seventy-six," Broaddus says. "But I wrung everything I could out of that engine, and now I need $10,000 to build a new one."

The track Broaddus has been running for the last three years at Bonneville is five arrow-straight miles of slippery salt. In the first two miles, riders get up to speed, then run through the speed traps from miles two to three, and slow down for the last two. There’s another track at Bonneville, too-eleven miles long-but riders must break the "buck-seventy-five" cut-off point to get on the longer run.

"That’s the big-boy track," Broaddus laughs. It’s also where riders from the faster classes of motorcycle compete, with the fastest ride ever clocking in at 368 miles per hour. "That machine," says Broaddus, "is just a torpedo with wheels attached."

For now, Broaddus is looking to "build a radical new motor with different style heads, crazy cams," and his list goes on. He acknowledges that all the years of mechanical work as a millwright help in these efforts-"also the welding, and all the precision aspects of millwrighting."

But to buy the parts and make the faster run, Broaddus needs backing. "I need to get corporate sponsors," he says. With support from his marketing-specialist girlfriend Kathryn Holt, Broaddus has already nailed down a donation of camping gear from Coleman, a truck from Dodge, and local backing from Auburn’s Lone Wolf Cycle Shop and C&E V-Twin. Stickers from supporters dot the sleek aluminum and styrene body of the bike, which Broaddus has rolled out of the blue J&B Racing barn on a grassy knoll in Auburn.

The 340-pound bike is a stretched-out, pared-down big, bad brother to what most people imagine when they think "motorcycle." The seat, for example, is naked aluminum, designed to hunker the rider forward, resting his chest on the fuel tank-a metal tube that holds 1.3 gallons of gasoline, the legal minimum in American Motorcyclist Association rules-and peering through a tiny curve of windscreen at the salt track ahead.

"When the green flag drops," Broaddus says of a Bonneville run," your heart’s hammering, your adrenaline’s over the top, and it’s just tunnel vision-you’re so focused…. The first year, once I got up to speed, I forgot to breathe."

Man and machine: James Broaddus and the "Auburn Express."

It’s not something riders can practice-there’s no place to do it-and the conditions are challenging. "You have to be a journeyman rider to even try this," he notes. "It’s like riding on a pool table. The salt is slippery, so you have to accelerate slowly, find the balance between acceleration and traction, and then as you go faster you get lighter."

It’s a fight to keep the powerful bike from drifting, hard to keep it on the ground, and difficult to coax every last mile-per-hour from the engine in the harsh environment. "Elevation and other ambient conditions immediately rob you of 10–15 percent of your horsepower," he says.

At the end of a day at Bonneville-and typically, riders make from two to five runs in a day-Broaddus says he lies in bed at night with his mind still churning on how to tweak the engine, change his weight on the motorcycle or work with the acceleration. He says, "There’s just a bucketload of adrenaline coursing through you."

Broaddus, who grew up motorcycling, has been headed for Bonneville since he was 7 and watched the races on Wide World of Sports. "I saw all that salt, all that speed-I thought, I’ve gotta do that."

Now that he has been racing at Bonneville for the last three years, Broaddus is hooked. But he’s also still humble. "All the fastest people who have ever been have raced out there," he says. "It’s sacred ground. For me, it’s a privilege to be on that same patch of ground."

If all goes well, this could be the year Millwright James Broaddus rolls with the big dogs out on that stretch of sacred salt. All he needs is $10,000 and a buck seventy-five.

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