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Erin Sills is a two-time Guinness World Record holder and 19-time motorcycle land speed record holder who has spent decades pushing the limits of what a motorcycle — and its rider — can do on the Bonneville Salt Flats. She does all of this while holding down a full-time academic career, which says something about her particular brand of ambition.

EARLY YEARS

Sills didn’t grow up as a gearhead waiting for her first bike. She came to motorcycling as an adult, which makes what she’s built in the sport all the more remarkable. She learned to ride and, by her own account, almost immediately found herself racing on the Bonneville Salt Flats — a trajectory that most experienced riders would consider either inspiring or completely insane. [1]

OTHER INTERESTS

Away from the salt flats, Sills is a professor at North Carolina State University’s College of Natural Resources, where her academic work focuses on forestry, environmental economics, and global sustainability — areas that could not look more different from land speed racing on the surface. She has been recognized by NC State for her global engagement work [2] and holds appointments with the university’s Global One Health Academy and Energy Program. [3] She is also a research associate with the Forests & Livelihoods Assessment, Research and Engagement (FLARE) initiative, which focuses on the relationship between forests and rural communities worldwide. [4] The combination of elite-level motorsport and serious academic research isn’t a persona she performs — it’s just what her life looks like.

Sills is also a riding coach and was involved with WomenRidersNow.com, eventually becoming a co-owner of the platform — one of the most widely read resources for women motorcyclists in the country. [5] She has served as a presenter at the Women’s Motorcycle Conference and joined the leadership board of Women Riders Now, reflecting a consistent commitment to growing the sport for other women. [6]

EARLY SUCCESS

The Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah have been the site of speed record attempts for over a century, drawing engineers, eccentrics, and the genuinely fast to a place where the horizon looks infinite and the margin for error is not. Sills arrived in that tradition and made it her own. Her early runs on the salt established her as a credible competitor, not a novelty, and she kept coming back. Each return trip brought refinement — in preparation, in equipment, and in the understanding of what it takes to hold a motorcycle steady at speeds that most people will never experience in a car. [1]

Her weapon of choice became the BMW S 1000 RR, a superbike that BMW built for competition and that Sills has pushed to its outer limits. The partnership with BMW would eventually become one of the defining elements of her record-setting career. [7]

NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS

• 2016: Racing her BMW S 1000 RR, Sills set a speed of 219.3 mph at Bonneville, earning her 12th motorcycle speed record and prompting San Diego BMW Motorcycles to announce a sponsorship partnership. [8]
• 2016: Recognized as a 12-time motorcycle speed record holder at the time of her 219.3 mph run, with coverage noting her dual identity as a Facebook executive and competitive racer. [8]
• Multiple years: Sills accumulated 19 motorcycle land speed records over the course of her career at Bonneville, including a sweep of three records in a single event documented in a newswire announcement. [9]
• Guinness World Record (first): Sills set the Guinness World Record for fastest conventional motorcycle speed by a female rider. [10]
• Guinness World Record (second): Sills earned a second Guinness World Record, cementing her status as the benchmark for women’s land speed motorcycle performance. [10]
• 2019/2020: Sills and Andy Sills piloted the BMW S 1000 RR to new world and national records at Bonneville, with BMW Group press confirming the achievement. [7]
• Top speed: Sills reached 242 mph on a BMW motorcycle, documented by Top1 Oil. [11]
• 2022: Nominated for the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame, a recognition that places her in the company of the most significant figures in American motorcycle history. [12]
• Smithsonian recognition: Sills and her record-setting runs were featured in the Smithsonian’s “Nation of Speed” exhibition, acknowledging her place in the broader history of American speed culture. [13]

INSPIRATIONS

Sills has spoken about her motivations in podcast appearances and interviews, and what comes through is less about chasing celebrity and more about genuine obsession with the discipline itself — the preparation, the variables, the particular challenge of land speed racing where you get one shot per run and the margin between a record and a crash can be razor-thin. [14] She has also been candid about wanting to show other women that the sport is accessible, that you don’t have to have grown up in a racing family or started at age eight to become seriously competitive. Her work as a riding coach and her involvement with Women Riders Now reflect that outlook. [5]

REPUTATION

In a sport where credibility is earned in tenths of a second, Sills has built a reputation that requires no asterisk. Nineteen land speed records and two Guinness marks speak clearly enough. But the way she’s regarded within the women’s motorcycle community adds another dimension — she’s not just a racer who happens to be a woman, she’s someone who has actively worked to pull other women into the sport and give them better resources once they arrive. [5] [6]

The Brock’s Performance blog, which covered her Sprint Filter-sponsored 219.3 mph run, noted the technical precision behind the effort — this isn’t someone who shows up and goes fast on raw nerve alone. [15] BMW’s official press coverage treated her records as genuine achievements worth announcing through their corporate communications, not as human-interest sidebars. [7] That’s the kind of institutional recognition that reflects how seriously the industry takes her. Her 2022 AMA Hall of Fame nomination put her name alongside the most consequential figures in American motorcycling history. [12]

The BMW Motorrad Owners of America podcast devoted an episode to her story in December 2020, and the High Gear Success podcast profiled her as a land speed racer and two-time Guinness World Record holder — both of which suggest that her crossover appeal extends beyond the niche of salt flat racing into the wider motorcycling audience that finds her combination of speed and substance genuinely compelling. [14] [16]

FUTURE GOALS/PLANS

No confirmed future goals or plans beyond 2024 were available in the source material at time of publication.

References:

Learning to Ride and Immediately Racing the Bonneville Salt Flats — Women Riders Now
Sills Recognized for Global Engagement — NC State CNR
Erin Sills — NC State Global One Health Academy
Erin Sills — EFD Initiative
Erin: Racer, Riding Coach, WRN.com Owner — MotoChic Gear
Women Riders Now Announces New Leadership Board
New World and National Records for BMW Motorcycles — BMW Group Press
Facebook Executive and 12-Time Motorcycle Speed Record Holder Erin Sills Races to 219.3 MPH — PR Newswire
19-Time Motorcycle Speed Record Holder Erin Sills Sweeps the Three — Newswire
Fastest Conventional Motorcycle Speed (Female) — Guinness World Records
Fastest BMW Motorcycle 242 MPH — Erin Sills — Top1 Oil
AMA Announces 2022 Hall of Fame Nominees — Road Racing World
Nation of Speed — Smithsonian Institution
Episode 102: Erin Sills — BMW MOA Horizon Podcast
Sprint Filter Sponsored Erin Sills Races to 219.3 MPH — Brock’s Performance Blog
Erin Sills: Land Speed Racer and 2x Guinness World Record Holder — High Gear Success
Facebook Executive and 12-Time Motorcycle Speed Record Holder Erin Sills Races 219.3 MPH — BMW Blog
Erin Sills, Co-Chairwoman WomenRidersNow.com — Women’s Motorcycle Conference
Sprint Filter Air Filter Captures 5 World Speed Records at Bonneville — Brock’s Performance Blog
Erin O. Sills — NC State College of Natural Resources Directory