I got to go to Bonneville, "Grumpy Old Men" I thank you!!

Feel free to give me a shout if you need more help, number is in the link in my signature.

 

Rich ; I have been building hot rods and race cars all my life, so I like both. I favor traditional hot rods over street rods. Bonneville provides more traditional hot rods driven on the street ( which are not street rods ) than I have ever seen all in one place. Every night during Speed Week in Wendover, the Hot Rods gather at the Casino parking lots. Back east there are many cruise nights and car shows to see street rods and a few traditional Hot Rods. I see them often without traveling 3000 miles, so I only photographed race cars.
Land Speed Record Race Cars is why I went to Bonneville, the Hot Rods are icing on the cake.

 

Hahaha, Rich was being facetious. He has a lap or two under his belt at Bonneville and like many that have been going for years to race and not for the circus.

 

OK guys, thanks for the help and encouragement. Now back to the Salt Flats and Roadsters.
How about an Arias Hemi with a PSI screw blower on it, in a front engined modified roadster.

 

I kind of had that figured out already. You can sort of seperate racers from the Hot Rodders and the street guys, but you have to sort of read between the lines to get it.

I have had my share of laps in front engined and rear engined Top Fuel cars and now with Nostalgia Funny cars, but so far I can only dream about running on the salt.

 

While we are on this topic, let me ask the question. I have driven a Yellow mini 32 ford (800#legends car) powered by a fuel injected GSXR motor cycle engine. I ran it at Dumont Sand Dunes in California and on the sand flats of that desert. The thing never hooked up, even in 5th gear. It is a handfull, like driving a fuel car. My question is; is that anything like driving on the salt?

 

My favorite roadster, the 911 Blown Fuel Roadster. The closest thing to a AA/FC on the salt.

 

pushing off for the run on the salt.

 

The 911 pit area, engine out, blower on the bench, new block on the stand ready to go in the chassis. Crew guy changing parts from the engine that came out.

 

911 all apart for service for the next lap.

 

Also in the 911 pit is it's little brother # 811

 

Here is a nice roadster with a matching coupe sitting beside it in the pit area.

 

The SoCal #553 leaving the starting line on a run.

 

A closer look at the #553 SoCal roadster.

 

The staging lanes provide great photo opps while the cars are waiting to move up to the starting line.



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Here is a flathead powered fuel roadster that captured the XF/fuel roadster record this Speedweek. I talked to the chassis builder on the classicfunnycarboard. He stated that this car captured the record last year on gasoline. Great car!



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I am so Jealous, this is on my Bucket List !

 

This early Hemi powered entry was part of the Bean Bandits group. I took this shot during tech.







I just love the early Hemi !!

 

cool thread, keep those pictures and stories coming !!

 

Modified roadster in the technical inspection area with the body panels off for inspectors to check out the car.

 

good stuff goldy! thanks for the sharing !

 

It was good timing when I walked into this pit area as they were firing it up to get heat in the motor. This 32 Ford roadster is powered by a Blown Nitro Ford flathead motor equipped with Ardun Hemi heads. That thing sounded like no flathead that I ever heard before. I can assure you that it ran a decent percentage.

 

I think I can remember a 34 fuel coupe that wore the same number many years ago.
This #554 roadster is beginning it's run down the salt.
Ha Ha, there are no pre stage beams, and no tree, just a SCTA official starter that points for you to proceed on your run, that could be 100, 200, 300, or even 400 miles per hour at the other end.

 

I am sure that a lot of you folks recognize the name on this rear engine modified Blown fuel roadster.

 

So here are the perpetrators of this, drive all the way across the USA trip to go to Bonneville, road trip. Got Salt ??





left to right, Jim Senkewitz, Goldy, Eddie, and the guy that made it all happen is Joe Law. Eddie and Joe are the "Grumpy Old Men"

 

had mentioned earlier about Jim senkenwitz and I got to ride along in the race director's truck while he was assisting with spin outs and debris on the track etc. Well that ride along was arranged by Joe Law for us to visit the time slip tent, the timing tower, the radio announcer's booth. Jim of course wanted to visit the announcers because he is an announcer himself.

I took this photo from the back seat of the Race Director's truck while we were driving across the salt to a spin out. The director gives a command on the two way radio to the official starter to shut down the course while we drive to the scene.

 

Here is the scene that we arrived at where this race car had spun out.

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A good thing that the car just spun out because when they roll over at speed it gets ugly!

 

Next, he took us out to the timing tower which was between course three and four. I took this picture of Jim Senkewitz in front of the timing Tower/trailer.















And inside the tower all of the runs are on computer showing the speeds of the car, at the different mile markers as they pass the markers.






The view of the cars going past the tower is miniscule. Look closely and you only see a tiny dot, that is a car on a run! It looks like the race car is at the base of the center of the middle mountain, but it is many miles from that mountain.

 

there is not much to see out in the middle of the course. From a spectators point of view there is not much to see from the sidelines because you are so far away. Binoculars are key.





Here is a sideline shot, that little spec in the middle of the picture is the car making a run.

 

While we were coming back from the timing tower, the director got a call that Seth Hammond's lakester had spun out in the middle of their run at well above 200 mph. The truck ran over 90 mph while we were rushing to the scene, as we approached this is what we were seeing. Thank God that is was upright and had not rolled.