Having ventured into the Buell Brothers pits on many occasions, I’ve yet to spot “Joliet” Jake, or the harmonica harping Elwood Blues, the duo more commonly known as the Blues Brothers. Team members sport yellow tee shirts with dark top hats and sunglasses made famous by John Belushi and Dan Akroyd’s Hollywood hit, only with a two-wheel twist. The Buell Brothers Racing Team is also made up of a group of cool cats, only instead of making music and creating unbelievable chase scenes on a mission from God, their mission is to work hard, play hard and break land speed records at the famed Bonneville Salt Flats. Jake and Elwood would save the Catholic orphanage where they grew up. Founding Buell Brothers member Tom Anderson, known by his friends as Santa Claus for his white locks and jovial smile, helped save his hometown of Siren, Wisconsin, after a tornado leveled the town. At the time Tom was busy making plans to build the first custom-built racer made exclusively from parts out of the Drag Specialties catalog.
“In 1999 I met Fred Fox, owner of Drag Specialties, at Bonneville. We hit it off; anyone that loves Old Style Beer is a good man. I wanted to build a race bike out of the Drag Specialties Fat Book that anyone could build and go racing. Fred loved the idea. In May of 2001 my hometown of Siren was leveled by an F-4 tornado. I called Warren “HD” Davis and said ‘Pete, I need your help’. I sent the parts and told Fred what I was doing. Pete put the FatBook Flyer together. We went racing at Bonneville and set a few records along the way. The bike looked beautiful.”
As for the tornado, “I was President of our local Hockey Association, which also was leveled. With the help from people all over the United States, the hockey rink, and Siren is better than ever. Thanks to everyone for your help.” John Belushi also made a movie about college life called Animal House. It was a carefree time with wild parties, beautiful girls, and lots of beer. Similar conditions brought the Buell Brothers together. Tom tells us how: “As a kid I heard about Bonneville and thought someday, I’ll make it out there to race. I joined the Navy in 1969. Went to Great Lakes boot camp, then received orders to Jacksonville, Florida. I went to Daytona to see Bike Week and motorcycles kind of took over my life. Then came orders to go to Lemoore, California. I called my dad and told him to borrow some money because I was going to buy a Harley, a 1952 Panhead. In my eyes it was beautiful and fast. Five or six of us rode Harleys and decided to get a house together. We found an old farmhouse outside of Hanford. We called it the Animal Farm. It was quite the party house; we had live bands, drank lots of beer, and fiddled with women and motorcycles. Everyone for miles around had been to or heard of the Animal Farm. We met people from all walks of life, and yes, we all got in trouble a few times.”
I asked Tom why the team decided on Buell motorcycles to race. “I wanted to run a Harley at Bonneville, but the big Twins were slow and not aerodynamic. In 1995 Eric Buell got together with Harley and made the S-2 Thunderbolt. I thought wow, Sportster based, fairly fast and aerodynamic. I bought one from Roger Roeszler, who worked at Black Hills Harley-Davidson at the time. We had a bike we thought would go fast, and be fun.” The original Buell Brothers competed for the first time at Speed Week in 1995. The crew consisted of Terry Spears, Joe Taylor, Pete “HD” Davis, Lanny Koch, Lynn “Farmer” Lord, “Motorcycle” Michaels, and Tom “Santa Claus” Anderson. Their rider was Roger Roeszler. “We had the same basic team in place for the first three years and set records of 135.387, 144.002, and 147.819 mph in consecutive years. On the way off the flats in 1995 Roger and I stopped the truck and hugged each other. We had a dream and we accomplished it. That first record was one of the great things that has happened to me in my life.”
Tom fondly recalls: “During speed week we used to ride the race bike back and forth to the KOA where we would stay. We would work on it and take it for a little ride on Wendover's famous two lane blacktop roads. We did that for many years, until a Nevada State Patrol caught us. ‘Boys, I don't think this is legal, how about you?’ he said. After a few nice words with him, we loaded her on a trailer. She’s done all her racing on the salt ever since.” Today, the team has evolved to include women racers. At the insistence of Tom’s sisters, Jill, Joni and Jacky, the Buell Sisters was born. Running a 1995 S-2 Buell Thunderbolt in the production class (P-PP 1350), Erika Cobb from Mitchell, South Dakota, set a record of 130 mph in 2008. Erin Hunter from San Francisco set a new record of 146 mph the following year. “We plan on racing both the Brothers’ and Sisters’ bikes for many years, hopefully setting more records.”
You may have seen Tom on occasion roaming the pits with samples of cheese. I’ve tried it, and it is very good. I asked what it was all about: “Being from Wisconsin, the land of Harley-Davidson and the world’s best cheese, I came up with an idea. I went to see the head cheese maker at Burnett Dairy, and I told Earl about my racing, and competing with people from all over the world. I told him we live in a small community and how our race team might be able to help grow their internet sales. So, now we give away Burnett Dairy Cheese when we race at Bonneville. The people love the cheese, and they get home and order more through the internet. It has turned out to be a great thing for everyone.”
Fast motorcycles, cool sunglasses and flat-brimmed hats, racers with funny nicknames… and cheese. Buell Brothers Racing is on a mission!
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