By Louise Ann Noeth. Photos by the author.
Land speed racing at Bonneville was back this year after a forced, two-year weather-induced hiatus and the bulging pit area was abuzz with warming engines. However, the 68th running of Speed Week, August 13-19, hosted by the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) was a mixed bag of success.
The racers were ready, but the salt crust? Not as much. Its bumpy surface was marginally thin in many places leading many to stand down, or depart early. Smaller, lighter machines struggled with salt that motorcyclist Joe Amo termed “greasy.”
Bigger, heavier cars, grappled with vision-gutting high-speed vibration. Traction control systems went berserk-o-wacky and the emanating staccato sound waves wrinkled brows from starting line to shut-off. Belly pans were sacrificed to the recycling bin with regularity.
You never can predict what will show up on the salt every meet. Here the green pick-up runs in P/Production Pick-up class with a vintage powertrain. Richard Smith’s red 1965 Plymouth has a 528-cu.in. Chrysler V-8 and competes in AA Class Blown Gas Competition Coupe.
These amateur racers often demonstrate more resolve the paid motorsport crowd and don’t give up easily. Bonneville is the largest expanse of serene nothingness with which a person might ever bond. One visit stays with you for a lifetime; it’s cerebral magnetism on overdrive.
Once you’ve had the supreme pleasure of rolling with conviction over pristine saline – nevermind setting a speed record – a spark of divinity is exposed and I don’t mean inside a cylinder.
Bonneville racing has been described as “the last vestige of the Wild West” where all the ponies are now under the hood. In addition to Speed Week, there are four other events: World of Speed, Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials, Cook Shoot Out and World Finals, with the occasional private events.
Speed Week 2016 attracted 418 pre-entries, down from 550 in 2013, with an estimated 72 on-site registrations bringing the total to 490 entries. The final tabulated number will be larger once class changes (e.g. gas to fuel) and additional drivers are factored into event totals.
A modest 68 car records were set all week. Further evidence of feeble salt is found in the unrealized potential: Only 2 cars set records above 400 MPH. Speed Demon Racing Team’s 416 record in Class B/BFS Class and Thompson LSR’s 411 in Class AA/FS.
Noteworthy is that the single, smaller Speed Demon turbocharged engine outran the pair of Thompson’s 2,500-horsepower nitro Hemi V8s. All engine man Ken Duttweiler’s fault – again. The lone 300-plus record came through the Fergusen family streamliner 349 MPH in Class B/FS. A mere 17 records were set in the 200 MPH range with all the rest south of that.
George Poteet, driving his brand spanking shiny new Speed Demon recorded Top Time of the meet for the 6th straight year in a row with a blistering 442 MPH one-way run.
He told me that he is done for the year thanks to jackhammer quivering from the surface that limited his clear vision to a quarter mile. Consider the speeds he whistles along at, and then decide if you have matching tenacity – it takes a minimum of two runs to set a national record.
Only eight other cars ran above 300 MPH, five of which were capable of 400-plus MPH speeds.
Smaller, slower cars were the big winners this year with 48 inking a spot in the record books.
Affectionately known at home as Daddy’s Panda, this Saab 93 sport was resurrected by Lawrence Kansas motorhead Dan Haugh who happily recorded a new land speed record of 140.857 MPH in Class G/Blown Fuel Altered.
Dan Haugh from Lawrence, Kansas, had as much fun setting his 140 MPH record driving a resurrected 1991 Saab Turbo, a.k.a., “The Panda” as Poteet. Arriving home, wife Jay had adorned the front porch colonnade with a bright metallic “Congratulations” banner and inside waiting was a three foot high helium-filled silver trophy flanked with further profferings of praise and adulation.
Then there was Team McLeish Bros. who brought the modified Triumph Spitfire and SilverRod motorcycle streamliner to play with – emphasis on play as these guys are always in a good mood!
Setting five records – two car and three motorcycle – one used the same Indian engine once used by salt icon Burt Munro’s (World’s Fastest Indian) speed but because it was in another class the venerated New Zealander’s record remains intact.
Officially the first vehicle on planet earth to drive past 200 MPH on 100 percent vegetable oil.
The college-inspired Greenspeed Research Racing Team wins for the best pit improvement – a solar charge station. They wired up a single solar panel to a couple Odyssey Batteries and had silent power for the entire event. All the computers, phones, cordless tools, et al. were topped up effortlessly. The loudest thing in the 200 MPH Dodge Ram on veggie oil Greenspeed pit was their neighbor’s generator.
The salt got Congressional attention from a team representing the U.S. House of Representatives and Utah Governor Hebert’s office of Public Lands Policy. While onsite, the group saw irrefutable visual evidence of withering conditions and contributing causes that the LSR community squarely places on the BLM’s shoulders. All were duly amazed at how often the written documentation matched what they were observing.
An important point to understand about Bonneville racing that it is a family connected by passion, not necessarily DNA, it’s the single most enduring reason land speed racing remains vibrant more than 80 years later. They all recognize that together they can do something phenomenal that is otherwise impossible for the average person.
According to Judy Sights, SCTA Workers Coordinator and “dorm mother” (she has all the room keys), 160 volunteers worked an average of 10 hours per day for seven days, some 11,200 donated to hold the event, and an additional 2,400 hours of set-up and tear down by 50 volunteers laboring 12 hours per day for four days.
“I am looking forward to going back to work where I won’t have to work as many hours in a given day,” said racer turned volunteer Jeff Bryant.
Arizona resident Keith Copeland, driving the Black Salt Racing highly modified Triumph GT6 is all done by the three-mile releasing the parachute as he passes the timing tower. The engine vibrato emanating from the car causes racers and spectators in the pits to stop, stand up and turn around to see this 370 MPH sports car.
But wait, there’s more! Understand that some 50 people plan Speed Week and World Finals working a minimum of two hours per day from mid-March to the moment tech inspection opens in August, about 150 days and 15,000 additional hours. Every year since 1949.
From the website posted daily run data, the rookie and short courses managed to accommodate a healthy 1,450 runs and 14 spinouts over the seven days. Restricted to 175 MPH and slower over two timed miles, the Rookie course has only one timed mile.
Lucky break? The BMR coupe awaits not one, but two new front tires after one lost pressure during the record qualifying run. To stay safe and ward off petulant handling problems on the pockmakred, bumpy course, the team opted to replace both rubber bits.
Long course (175 MPH and above) runs are timed over three flying miles and saw only 700 runs completed. Not a lot, but each run does take much longer to start, run and complete. Each time the 26 racers spun themselves out, the track was shut down until the car was cleared and track was declared safe.
Overall, there was a vehicle spin about every 54th run, with more than 100 turn-outs – racers aborting the run either due to mechanical problems or simply not comfortable with current track conditions.
The latter was doubtless a big factor as the pits were nearly half empty by Tuesday morning with clear evidence of many more packing up, but hanging around to visit.
David Hlebichuk, a retired Texas geologist, and his 1990 ZR1 C5 Corvette recorded a 222.027 run in Class C GT. Ya gotta wonder what the guy thought of the surface conditions…
Salt safety sentinels reported only one injury accident despite conditions. Chris Procter, a motorcyclist from the UK’s Isle of Man went down and broke his leg in four places. The rider and bike are back home, and told SCTA officials he is already making plans to return in 2018.
When you consider that the Bonneville Salt Flats have hosted thousands of average “nobodys” who became “somebodys” by setting a record with their hand-built speed machine you begin to understand the value of such a place.
SCTA President Bill Lattin speaks to long course starter Ron Joliffe checking last minute detail before opening the International Speedway to morning record runs.
Those with a dream built it into reality then proved that their idea had merit. How do you value a chance to live large, to honestly savor personal success?
This family-based sport continues to welcomes anyone with a “can do” attitude, encourages innovations in science, technology, engineering and transportation safety.
Grandmothers and grand dads have eschewed rocking chairs for racecars driving safely, repeatedly and gloriously in excess of 250 MPH. Families thrive here.
From the first race in 1914, racers understood the tremendous motorsports value of the salt beds, they recognized its matchless natural surface as a place where speed was dependent on the amount of courage drivers found when applying the throttle.
from Hemmings Daily – News for the collector car enthusiast http://ift.tt/2bQM7Ps
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