Meet Benson Ratliff, the first African American to win The Discovery Channel’s annual Biker Build-Off contest in Las Vegas. The 2007 annual challenge, which is in its 8^th year, has two reputed custom motorcycle builders from different parts of the country—usually with very different styles of building—to each build a unique custom bike in their respective style, pitting their teams and expertise against each other to see who is the better builder. During the first week of August 2007, he successfully built a custom bike in 10 days that was later voted the winner against his competitor by a crowd of over 5,000. The show’s winner was an aqua blue, air ride equipped pro-street bike and can be seen at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas through November.

Aside from the bike recently completed for the Biker Build-Off contest, perhaps the most popular bike built by Benson is the one he built for himself and rides often. It is candy apple red and emblazoned with nine $100 bills in the fenders. His personal ride boasts 12 coats of paint and 400 hours of airbrush time. Complete with lots of chrome, wheel lighting and many other subtle accents that most people would gloss over, it offers plenty of awesome details that are quite pleasing to the trained eye.

Despite a rough start back in 2002 when he entered numerous shows and exhibitions and his booth didn’t get a second look as the only minority there, Benson now claims 26 wins from all 26 shows he’s entered since his humble beginnings. A self-made millionaire before his 40^th birthday, Benson has propelled into the spotlight with the Biker Build-Off challenge win. In spite of his huge success, he remains humble and grateful for his meager beginnings. In 2003 he established the Minority Millionaire Mens’ Club with five others in an effort to give back to the community. One of the things this group does each summer is to give away air-conditioners to those in need. In an effort to help the next minority business trying to succeed, he is always eager to offer his advice, and pitfalls to others. Always determined, and true to himself and those around him, Benson “showed everybody at this [Biker Build-Off] event that you can do any thing you set your mind on accomplishing.”