Hundreds race in for Speed Week

Speed demons arrive at Salt Flats for chance to drive on legendary course

By Tom Wharton the Salt Lake Tribune Article Last Updated: 08/19/2008 07:28:18 AM MDT

   BONNEVILLE SALT FLATS - A long line of vintage cars, modernistic streamliners, experimental vehicles and motorcycles lined up for inspection Sunday at the start of Bonneville Nationals SpeedWeek, a testament to the allure of salt and speed.
    "I drove 2,000 miles to drive three miles," said Ken Cook of Grantford, Ontario, Canada, as he waited to have his 1953 modified Ford flatbed truck inspected so he could run the 1.5-mile out-and-back course on the legendary Salt Flats sometime this week.
    Sir Malcolm Campbell of Great Britain began using the glistening, surrealistic landscape, administered by the Bureau of Land Management, as a place to set world land speed records in the 1930s, and racers seeking speed have traveled here ever since.
    During SpeedWeek, a camper city arises near the entrance of the recreation area, where vehicles of all shapes and sizes cruise the salt as racers share tools, stories and speed.
    The event even features a nondenominational service hosted by Racers for Christ, an organization founded to address the "emotional and spiritual needs" of motor-racing Christians, as the group's chaplain, Gary DaShiell, explained in this year's program.
    There were 355 cars and 130 bikes, representing 37 states and five countries including New Zealand, Britain and France, pre-registered to participate in this year's Speed Week, which the

Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) started as a trial event in 1949. Sixteen entries are from Utah.
    SCTA official JoAnn Carlson said the combined impact of fuel prices and a lack of available hotel rooms caused a slight drop in entries from last year's 540. The fastest car is expected to be the blown fuel streamliner owned by Tom, Gene and Betty Burkland of Great Falls, Mont., which has gone as fast as 417.02 miles per hour. But the spirit and strangeness of the event may be better captured by a driver like Zachary Norman of Venice, Calif., who will try to set a record in the Omega class on his electric Harley-Davidson motorcycle. He said the experimental bike is built around a frame of a 1940s-vintage Harley and is intended for street use. After plugging it in to a normal socket, he expects it to go well over 70 mph.
Bob Steele of Wichita, Kansas, a member of the 200-mile per hour club, hasn't missed the Bonneville Nationals since 1978. When asked why, he pointed to the flats. "That big white piece of real estate out there," he said. "All the gearheads come to have fun. We enjoy the scenery. The salt has a face to it. There is an allure to it. Everyone comes out to spectate or to help. Everybody is doing it for the challenge to go fast. There is no money and no real glory."  Cal Ferguson of Port Dover, Ontario, said that, unlike NASCAR, running on the salt doesn't cost $10 million "just to get a driver's foot in the door."  Officials and drivers are all praising the condition of the salt flats. Many say this is the best condition the course has been in for more than 30 years. "It just happens," said the SCTA's Warren Bullis. "Some years we have bumps. Some years it is smooth. It's just right this year."

FRIDAY, August 21, 2007 

Weather: Beautiful, lots of Sunshine and a light breeze from the West

10:00 AM: Started the run like a Demon out of hell with 37# of boost but lost power again as the clutch failed again. So George shut it down and coasted through the light at over 300 MPH. Well now the speed Demon team knows a double disk won’t cut it with the horsepower the new engine is putting out. For the future runs Ron will be changing to a triple disk clutch to hold all the added horsepower the Hemi is putting out. Ron and crew are packing up and will leave for Los Angeles tomorrow morning. Speed Demon didn’t hit the jackpot by rolling the magic 400, but they kicked up their land speed record from 323 MPH to a new record of 343 MPH. They accomplished that with the new engine that had so much power it tore through three clutches. When George Poteet and Ron Main return in September for the TOP 1 Oil World Land Speed Shootout the 179 cubic inch Mopar Hellfire engine will have the boost problems solved, and with a triple plate clutch the 1200 horsepower will finally be fully loaded to strike the salt. With the extra mile to go even faster under the F�d�ration Internaionale de l’Automobile (FIA) and the F�d�ration Internaionale de Motocyclisme (FIM) international race sanctioning body five mile track, Speed Demon will be ready to hit 400.   

2:00 PM George Poteet and His Blowfish team have been working frantically to get his car fixed and back in line for one last run. They finally had the car at the starting line for one last run. The car performed beautifully qualifying for a new land speed record. They put the car in impound and will do the return run Saturday morning. 

Down Runs Long Course Vehicles

Saturday, August 21, 2007 

9:00 George Poteet’s 358 Dodge V-8 turbo “Blowfish” was on the salt and ready to fire again. The record run started well, but the awesome power of George’s new engine put tremendous stress on the car’s drive train. George’s run had to be aborted when the rear pinion failed and causing the drive shaft to break in three places. Blowfish has proved it has what it takes to set a new land speed records if we just can bridle all that that power. These problems will be solved and Blowfish will return stronger than ever to set new records on the salt.

Grain of salt department:

Oldest boy racer heads to Bonneville Salt Flats for record

July 15, 2008, 8:53 pm New Zealand's oldest "boy racer", 71-year-old Tauranga man Bill Ward, is heading back to Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats.

Mr Ward is taking a custom-built roadster car to claim his own records on the United States flats where the "world's fastest Indian" -- Southlander Burt Munro -- broke the world land-speed record on a modified 1920 Indian Scout motorcycle. Mr Ward has spent two years preparing for the 60th anniversary of record attempts at Bonneville and the official "Speed Week", which starts on August 18, the Bay of Plenty Times reported. In 1979, he became the first New Zealander to build and race a car down a 4.82km timed course on the Bonneville Salt Flats. He hit 275.7kmh in a 1930 Model A Roadster home-built by Kawerau crewman Casey Hill and returned two more times. "Technical difficulties" with time-keeping stopped those being accepted as official records, he said. "I have never officially beaten the records." Now he was aiming high -- 378kmh -- and planned to do it in a heavily modified 1927 Model T powered by a 1948 Ford V8 engine. The car has been custom-built in drag-racing fan Barb Sundgren's Whakamarama garage, near Tauranga. Ms Sundgren and her partner, Colin Prouse helped build the car and supplied the engine. More than 100 supporters plan to accompany Mr Ward to Utah. Fund raising has included a nude calendar for which 55 women supporters stripped off, and Mr Ward has his own MySpace page and a blog for the project.

Low and behold, like the strapless gown, they actually put a picture of Ron on the SCTA Bonneville site.

Russ Russ, John Aitken, Ron Main, Mark McCaw, Dave Kennamer

Pictures from Around Bonneville

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