Driver, fabricator

The “Quiet Giant” made his first trip to Bonneville in 1971 and was forevermore attracted to the sport. After time out for work and family, he returned in 2009 and began record-setting in earnest. He earned life membership in the Bonneville 200 MPH Club that August with an average speed of 210 mph on a bone-stock 1000cc Suzuki street bike onto which he had fitted a handcrafted, fully faired aero-body of his own conception. He bumped his record to 220 mph, then 225 and finally 239.976 mph. Veteran salt experts were astonished he did so with a normally aspirated engine. On the dirt at El Mirage in 2016, Hudson clocked 266.399 mph — the fastest motorcycle ever recorded there by 14 mph. In 2018, on Bolivia’s salt flats, he set a 297-mph record. In all, Hudson broke 39 records at Bonneville and El Mirage and won three SCTA motorcycle points championships. He was inducted into the Dry Lakes Racing Hall of Fame in 2017. No one has yet to break any of his records.