MITCHELLVILLE, Iowa — John Loghry from Saylorville successfully beat an odd record on Saturday: the fastest motorized wheelbarrow. He did it at an event on Northeast 112th Street in Mitchellville.
Loghry and his motorized wheelbarrow reached speeds of 57 miles per hour, beating the previous Guinness World Record of 47 mph.
“After a long time of working for it, I beat it, and that's what it's all about,” Loghry said.
The Polk County Sheriff’s office helped Loghry run a kilometers per hour lidar gun, a device required per Guinness rules.
“I'd been talking to Sergeant [Trevor] Martin for several months now, and he agreed to do it,” Loghry said. “I said, ‘Well, if you do it, I'll give you the lidar gun.’”
Loghry’s family and friends were there to watch him make history.
“He's been very determined on doing it, and there's a lot of steps that he didn't anticipate," Loghry’s wife Jeanne said. “To see him go through all of those steps and still be able to do it, that's great.”
As a veteran himself Loghry used the record breaking event as an opportunity to collect money for the Wounded Warrior Project.
“I did not go to Vietnam, but I know too many people that did, and a lot of my buddies were injured in that war or injured afterwards,” Loughry said. “Wounded Warrior is one of my favorite charities.”
Loghry built the motorized wheelbarrow himself and he hopes his story will encourage others to reach for the stars.
“If you think you can do it, try it,” Loghry said. “I'm living proof you can do it. That's all I can say on that. Just do it.”
Loghry still needs to send in some paperwork to Guinness to make it an official world record. He plans on doing that in the next month or so.