Edmonton motorcycle racer sets world record, is first Canadian woman to achieve feat

Liane Langlois, 50, competed in the Bonneville motorcycle speed trails in the Utah salt flats – setting a new land speed record at over 219 km/h.

An Edmonton motorcycle racer has returned home with a world record.

Liane Langlois is back in the city after competing last week in Utah’s Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials, where she piloted her machine to a land speed of 136.331 miles per hour – or 219.403 kilometres per hour – over a timed kilometre to set the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) mark.

The 50-year-old is the first Canadian woman to set an official FIM-accredited motorcycle land speed world record and the fourth Canadian to set one overall.

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Langlois called the achievement Friday at the legendary Bonneville Salt Flats west of Salt Lake City “the coolest thing I’ve ever done.”

“There aren’t a lot of people who, first of all, go down and set national records, let alone world records,” she told CTV News Edmonton on Wednesday.

The senior advisor for Chrysalis, an organization that serves citizens with disabilities, has been going to Utah to compete every August for the last 11 years.

“They allow me the time off to go do crazy things like set world records at the Bonneville Salt Flats,” Langlois said of Chrysalis. “I think everything in my life right now is just very rewarding.”

She became serious about winning recently after JKR Powersports in North Dakota designed a custom bike for her.

Last year, she set two national U.S. records and “figured we’d aim bigger this year and get a world record.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Marek Tkach