Watching record runs on two different days this week has spoiled me for just
reading about it BUT...
Jon Amo is doing a great job of giving a feel for what is going on. If you
read his commentary, go over the list of record runs, then the listing of
ALL the runs and finally the photos, it's the next best thing to being
there. Fill in around the edges with the SCTA/BNI photos and commentary and
you get a pretty good idea. Most of their shots are at the
inspection/impound area.
One run yesterday was particularly gratifying for me ...
Marty West drove the "family" Firebird w/supercharged Chrysler (an admitted
'dinosaur' car) in the new classics class to a 247 mph record. That's what
the car turned fourteen years ago when Don finally got his red hat after
racing at Bonneville since 1951 (where I first met him). I believe the 252
mph third mile is faster than the car has ever gone. It has a beautiful new
paint job done by Billy West and Don and Marty freshened up the mechanicals
after the car had been sitting for over twelve years. That new class has
brought out several old cars. The funniest line yesterday from Marty
..."they said I had to have a battery cut-off switch ... I asked why?
There's no battery. We push it to start, the mag starts it and everything
else runs off the generator."
There's lots more to the story that isn't necessary to go into here. Don
built the engine for my Bonneville "attempt" and taught me a lot about
mechanical things from watching him. His racing had always been financed by
his overtime pay, never from his regular pay check. He has run a '32
highboy, lakester, Corvair and a Studebaker among other Bonneville entries.
All the body work and engine work was his, with a little help from friends
who mostly held things when he needed more than two hands. I believe he
bought the Pontiac after an incident with the Studebaker on the salt that
left him very beat up. He raced winning Crackerbox boats and Ski boats as
well as building and maintaining the engine for a Jaguar engined, E Inboard
runabout I used to crew for. They all went very fast. It was all clever
intuition on his part but he made up for what he didn't know by never giving
up.
Like I say there's more to the story. All of it damning to the educational
system when he started elementary school. Today it wouldn't be the same
result.
Wes
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