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Event Coverage Bonneville 2010: a 200mph Club short story

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by Hans' Rod & Cycle, Sep 3, 2010.

  1. So, I have never posted really more than a few multiple liners answers or smartass comments but have been asked to put my last Bonneville experience on paper so I don't forget it when i get old. I figure why not share with you guys. Here goes, I appologize if it goes on and on. this is a re-cap of the week before and up to the last day of racing at Bonneville 2010.

    Well, most of the Bonneville threads are starting to die out so I figured I might write a small Made for HAMB short story. FYI, I’m not a writer.
    Bonneville is now come and gone and we had a long but great week in the end. As you read this keep the thought "If it were easy, everybody would be doing it" in your head. As a short intro I grew up in TX but moved to Norway 5 or so years ago so make the Bonneville trip from Norway to Houston to Wendover, UT each year. I have been a part of the Contrivance Engineering gang (Neil Akkerman and crew) from Houston, TX since we started racing out there in '03 or so...so yes, still newbies. We started with the yellow '23 T that used to be my avatar, in my albums as well, and as of this year it holds all the Records in GMR (Gas Modified Roadster) from the little E motor(260ci) through, D, C, B A and now AA as of a couple weeks ago. It went 287mph with a 13mph headwind and soft salt in the 3-4 1/2 range..not too shabby for naturally aspirated on gas. I drove that car a bit as first but when it started going really fast Ro Yale became the sole driver...also due to the fact he is the only one that can fit in the car now...'23s are small....So in 2005 we built the red '27 more as a R&D car and possible future street car(yeah right). I have been heading up that car with a different group or sole individuals to get them experience and licensed up in preparation to them deciding to build their own car. It seemed to have worked as since 2005 the '27 'educational' car has brought 2 new cars and 4 red hats in the process. ....but any who back to ME!!!
    So this year Craig Christie (owner of the car now) and I (Hans Blom) decided that we too wanted to set some of our own records and get the almighty Red Hat. SO after looking at the record book it seemed the B/BGMR record of 238+mph looked like a good candidate as far as HP/MPH per dollar. Craig and I are trying to do this on a shoestring as well.. Both our cars are pretty good in the Aero dept so we figured we needed 800hp minimum to go 250mph or so....B motor is 439ci or less, so I got a 454 2 bolt block I had, a set of splayed caps of a blown up Dart motor and a used Lunati 427 crank and started putting together a motor over at Houston Engine and Balancing. Nothing too fancy, some Merlin rect ports almost box stock, put Inconel valves in as we are at redline for 4 to 5 miles....they get hammered and HOT, a used Victor intake and had Kevin a C&S carb shop build me a blow through 850. The big ticket item was the front mount Procharger, F1R- , bought new. Gotta be front mount to keep it out of the wind...aero is allot easier to come by than the HP it takes to overcome it...especially once you start running over 2.....Forward to 1 week to Bonneville...
     
    Last edited: Sep 5, 2010
  2. I fly into Houston from Norway(Bergen), see the car, and realize there is about 3 weeks worth of work left ...then go to Austin to visit all my family for a day. Bright and early Monday I start working and honest 20hrs a day for the rest of the week, sleeping on the couch at the shop(luckily the shop is fully air-conditioned and has a shower...wish it was mine..)

    We were supposed to head for Bonneville on Wed to go through tech on Friday...instead we had finished most of the fab and were heading to the Dyno(Houston Engine Balancing, thanks Tommy and Jeff) wed evening...no, motor hasn't even been fired yet and the car should be heading to the flats at this point...7pm, finally on Dyno...fire it up, heat motor to set/seal head gaskets and pull Valve cover just to check valves...OK , make a couple partial pulls to set Blow Off Valve to 15psi or so boost...and make a full pull....1040HP right off the bat with same jets as delivered and timing at 30deg total...we smile. yeah boost went to 20psi...screw it we set valves, made one more pull and yanked it to re-install in car...no tuning, nada, lets get to the salt. No thermocouples and Oxy sensors weren’t working so no exh temps...just look at plugs the old fashioned way(yeah, scary with boost).

    So a bit more work and car leaves Friday morning at about 4am with Craig and Chaz Holland in the tow truck. Chaz and Mike Nettles take a week+ off life to come crew and couldn’t have done it without them. I get on plane and fly to Phoenix and get on a 2000 Buell X1 with 130hp at tire....fun ride to Las Vegas then to Wendover...we both arrive Saturday afternoon/evening. Get unpacked Sunday, go through tech, ready to race on Monday.

    So the PLAN was for Craig to break the record in the low to mid 240s, get his red hat then for me put the hammer down and see what she would do and get my hat. You know what they say about Bonneville and doing it on paper VS on the salt….YEAH…I’m an engineer so I plan most things on paper to see if it’s theoretically possible first, it’s the non-theoretical part that gets you every time. So Craig takes it out first run gets it in 4th and holds at 7200rpm which should be in the 244mph range( just a Super T-10 with 904 nod case)…get to timing tower…175mph???? What the F***?...He said the trans didn’t feel quite right . He wasn’t comfortable and wanted me to give it a try and see how it felt. Granted we are packed in the cockpit like a one-man sardine, especially with a conventionally Hurst shifted tans. To put it another way, I had to shift my right leg in between the butterfly steering wheel each time I wanted to shift. By the end of the week I was driving with one hand up to over 200mph and once in 4th settle down and get comfy. I digress. Transmission: well seems 3rd and 4th are switched…then next run we figure out 1st and 2nd are also switched. Craig went through the traps in 3rd gear…oops. This took a couple runs to figure out as at first I wasn’t sure if I had just miss-shifted due to the difficulty. I figured out the 3rd / 4th sawp on the first run…and ran 239 as an ave in mile 5….record was 238.962mph…..GO to IMPOUND!!!! YES!!!

    I broke the record on my first run. We pull into Impound, Dan Warner is there to greet us of course, he congratulates us on the run and then says, “your average was over the record, but is it high enough for the 2 Club(200mph Club)”…my heart about falls on the salt…he asks if we had checked the minimum in the book(which he wrote and there is only 1 copy of)..no..he looks in the book and looks at us, “No problem, same as the record” and my spirits are lifted once again. We do some paperwork, and push the car over and park it right next to our other car in impound, who had just upped their own C/GMR record from 255 to 266. Cool to have both cars in impound together…and next to the ’23 was Bob Blakely’s ’27 GRMR at 243mph that if you look close the front half of the car looks a WHOLE lot like our cars ( yes, he licensed in the ’27 then built his own rear engined ’27 with some consulting) ….as we were pushing the car over Dan saw some vents we had on the side of the car right in front of the rear wheel on the qtr panel that were used to License Bob Blakely when we had a radiator in the back for hot lapping the car, non-functional now as we just use a pressure/tank system. So Dan calls the roadster committee guys to come have a look as this is the cars first time in impound to make sure it’s all legal for the class and shortly after all hell breaks loose. To make a long story short, the vents in the qtr panels weren’t legal as the rules state from the firewall back you can have NO body modifications…and if you look at the pics, we have a double wide roll bar (remember the earlier crack about a future street car…yup)..well, we have faired the roll bar…and while it is legal to fair the ‘headrest’ of the roll bar, or the roll bar surrounding your drivers head…since ours went to the other side of the car it was no longer a headrest fairing…but a roll bar fairing…also not allowed. We then get into discussions with the Safety Committee and Lee Kennedy was called back out there as he had already gone to town, about the double wide roll bar and it’s sturdiness, they wanted more supports going down the center of the car….So you can imagine my emotions had gone up and down and up and back down again in the last 2 hours….the decision was made that we yank the vents, cover with plate, yank all the fairing in the roll bar and were then legal in class…the Safety Committee deemed the car as needing more vertical tubing to be able to run..BUT the Saint that he is, Lee Kennedy came to a compromise that he would set a speed limit of the car to 240mph AS-IS…or add bars in spots x,y,z and it could run with no limit.

    We decide to run it as is and get the record and hat and after doing that we could take it over to Kip’s shop in town and add bars if we wanted to go faster. Thanks to Dan, Lee and Don Ferguson III for as well as all the others for working with us and getting us back on the track. All the conclusionary discussions took up all of Tuesday.
     
    Last edited: Sep 5, 2010
  3. Wed Morning we are Ready to run, we put in a 7200chip in the rev limiter to make sure we don’t go too fast, this should be 244-245mph (Lee gave us some wiggle room) . I take off , get into high gear…this is the run I figure out 1st and 2nd are also switched, and hit the limiter, just cruising fine and then it happens at 240+mph I all the sudden am looking at the pits…then the flags are going away from me at a prodigious rate…I did 3 360s at over 240. I pulled the parachute after the first go-around as I was heading the right direction but it didn’t help at that speed and I went around one more time, running over the chute. I have to tell you it is pretty surreal, that was my first spin and a dusy. A spin means going back to inspection getting the car looked over and signed off again, we did this , went back to the pits checked everything, reset front end alignment and were ready to run Thursday Morning.

    Thursday morning and ready to run. It was a bit nerving getting up to the line after spinning, but actually after the spin I was completely at ease with it. It gave me confidence in the car and it’s safety….which is a good thing…especially since this next ride was all OVER the track pinballing between the cones at 240+mph which are 80ft apart before spinning again…I did catch it this time at about 150 and straightened it up and turned out like normal…back to inspection….DAMMIT…I did not have this calculated into my plan on paper!!! I should have mentioned in the first paragraph that roadsters can be a handful to drive at elevated speeds. The saying goes in the roadster group “it’s not IF you have spun, it’s WHEN you will spin”..OK I’ve spun, signed the book, got my Spin Pin and Sticker(yes, there’s a club), but I would like to consider myself done with that part of my life. So after getting singed off, headed back to pits, and then over to Kip’s shop and added 500lbs of lead around the back axle….make another pass….you must realize at this point the meet ends on Friday at noon, I’ve spun twice so 3 spins and you put it on the trailer for the meet…this pass was all over the track again, yes we had 12mph side winds, which suck, but was just very unstable, very sideways and peddling the throttle not to spin….so back to pits to check alignment again…positive toe????? Cheese and rice! Reset toe to 1/4in toe in, yes A lot…back out, handled like a dream, smooth like butter. This last run we had decided to try and get the record in the 2 to 3 mile to stay out of the softer salt at the end of the track. We tried this 2 more runs coming within a few tenths of the record. End of Thursday.

    OK, last day of meet and only a half day to try and break and backup the record. We , and the rest of the Contrivance gang running the yellow ’23 decide to quit being a little girl and run it to the 4 or 5 what ever it took…last chance, going home today anyway right? We get up close to the line and still have the hood off …I forgot to say we had an issue with our dry sump pump drive , which wasn’t located correctly as we had to make a spacer for the drive due to front mount blower…so we were loosening and centering the drive by hand every couple runs(jackass I know) But while the hood was of I noticed a little black cap laying on the intake manifold…yup, it was the cap for the front base plate on the carb…so we had been blowing air and fuel into the engine compartment at 20psi during each run…who knows how many runs…First run, get into high gear, driving like it was a drag race to the 2 mile, hit the rev limiter at 2 1 /2 or so and just held it to the 4…no problems, drove great, pulled the chute, pulled onto return lane and waited. One of the Rovers came up with hand written note “Wanted in Impound” with my speeds. I broke it in both the 3 and the 4!!! This is good actually as your backup run has to be in the same mile as you broke the record...so I could break it in either for the backup run. Finally the push truck came up honking! Honking is good...a quiet push truck means grim faces.

    We go to impound , fill out some paperwork and no problems this time….again the ’23 which has switched motors to the big AA has just run again on their Thursday record and bumped it up, so both cars are headed for backup runs together.
     
    Last edited: Sep 5, 2010
  4. Last day there isn’t much of a wait and after qualifying, getting back to Impound and taking care of business it was 11ish O’clock ...return runs start at 12. Not much time to sit down and relax, but probably for the best anyway. So meanwhile Neil is talking to Dan Warner and the timing tower hyping up my return run and he and Dan think it would be fitting for me to close the meet down with a Red hat on the last day and last run...so of the 6 or so cars to make return runs I get to go last. No pressure. So Ro is a car ahead of me and makes his backup run in the ‘23. I move up to the line a patiently wait as Ro is flying down the course banging on the 300mph door. Then it comes over the radio...trouble at mile 5. That is not something you ever want to hear about your friend sitting in the driver seat, not to mention as you are staring down the tack getting ready to try and make possibly one of the most important runs of your life. So I’m sure it was just seconds but it felt like forever...Driver is OK and car is stopped. Lordy son, don’t do that to me! I also forgot to mention we pulled 400lbs of lead OUT of the car to try and get that last little bit of MPH, at the possible expense of a wilder ride. Right at the 5 the motor blew the rods out the bottom, it was time there was a good 4 or 5 runs on the motor(joking)...still bumped the record. It took awhile to get him of the track as the motor was now locked solid, the Jerico 4spd that is shifted via a very cool in house made shifter that uses air cylinders triggered electronically, was stuck in gear due to a flash fire from motor and smoked some wires on firewall. Several jacks and cars later they are off the track.

    The starter says go. So I take off down the track and of course the 3rd gear shakes start. I forgot to mention this earlier, there was a short washboard section between the 1 and 2 mile, that for most cars probably wasn’t a problem but with the new motor and added weight our front shocks had less than an inch of compression before bottoming out. So in the high 100s the front wheels are oscillating back and forth bouncing 4 to 6 inches off the ground. This didn’t happen in the very early runs as I was lollygagging around knowing that I had more than enough power to pull mph on the big end. BUT, as this is the 2nd or 3rd time this has happened I just keep the throttle pinned and in seconds it is smooth like butter. Butter that has been in the freezer, but still butter. I hit the rev limiter between the 2 and 3 so I know I’m at 244ish. About this time I can feel my helmet really start to pull on my neck. I hadn’t relaxed enough to let my head go back and touch the headrest after shifting into 4th. As I let my head go back my helmet lifts a bit in the front and I start to get all kinds of air turbulence inside my helmet. It was mid-day so I had my sunglasses on and they started dancing on my nose like a hummingbirds wings. My current status is somewhere in between the 3 and 4, 244mph, my head pinned back and up at an angle and my sunglasses doing the locomotion. I can see a orange marker on the right-hand side, can’t see left at all, I’m pretty sure the one that just went by wasn’t the 4 mile marker as they are bigger, but who knows at this point so I just hold what I got and wait for some sign...be it God or a mile marker, they are almost equivalent at this point. Another marker goes by that I’m fairly confident was the 4 mile, it was a bit closer to the car than the last one so I barely put a little pressure on the wheel to go left hold it for 2 seconds and pull the chute. I slow down quickly, regain sight and I’m well within the track, and as I slow down and start to pull to the left I can see the 5 mile marker I should be safe as far as my ave mph goes.

    I pull around 180 degrees facing the opposite direction on return road and just wait. One of the workers pulls up in his truck with a big grin and says congratulations. I was already out of the car and had put the chute in the car and was sitting on the roof at this point. My heart just about fell on the salt. The truck drove off, I think, not to coherent at this point and I lay back and smile in the sun. Soon the push truck rolls up honking. I love a honking push truck.

    I owe all this to Craig Christie as he made this trip happen and due to a random phone call to a sign company when I first moved my hotrod shop to Houston, Craig picks up the phone and started a beautiful relationship between him and all the gang involved with Contrivance Engineering. I love you man.

    If it were easy...everybody would be doing it
     
    Last edited: Sep 5, 2010

  5. So that's my very condensed version of how I got into the 200mph club and my favorite hat of all time..for the rest of my life. here's a few pics.

    First is right before loading car on trailer at end of meet...we are beat.
    Next is an open hood shot, then me in car with Craig. the 2 yellow stickers you get when you spin...notice the 240+ spin and Lee Kennedy signature...nice, and finally just a shot heading to the salt at about 7am right after the bend in the road.
     

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  6. The other 2 crew, Chaz Holland and Mike Nettles shortly after arrival. This was Chaz's first trip to salt. they will be back. Thanks guys.
     

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  7. Candy-Man
    Joined: Mar 21, 2006
    Posts: 1,715

    Candy-Man
    Member

    Hey you started off with an apology, it certainly was not required.... Great read, excellent short story....

    So how do you like wearing the red hat ?
     
  8. Wow!
    Love your storey.
    Got to go to Bonneville
    A Dane living in California
    Thanks
    Howard Nielsen
    Alpine Ca
     
  9. Stovebolt
    Joined: May 2, 2001
    Posts: 3,531

    Stovebolt
    Member

    Thank-you for such an enlightening story Hans. It just shows how much "luck" there is in gaining a red hat, after doing all the work required to get there.

    Records = H.P. and luck

    Well done.
     
  10. They give you 2 hats...they say it's for when you get out of the shower you can quickly replace the wet one with a dry one....It's true. I don't think it's really even hit me yet.
    Hans
     
  11. Beef Stew
    Joined: Oct 9, 2008
    Posts: 1,253

    Beef Stew
    Member
    from So Cal

    Awesome story.
     
  12. Great story! I love salt stories. My son and my brother all met up on the salt last year to get in the 150 MPH club. I wrote a similar story when we got back..took all week to get our 150..our backup run was the last run on Friday and on Saturday the wind had changed to a head wind..Ain't it FUN?
     

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  13. here's the evil twin '23 T referenced and that started this madness.
     

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  14. Best place on earth.
     
  15. the shadow
    Joined: Mar 5, 2005
    Posts: 1,105

    the shadow
    Member

    I thought you said it was a short story?
     
  16. cracker head
    Joined: Oct 7, 2007
    Posts: 968

    cracker head
    Member

    Thanks for the story, and congrats!
     
  17. James Curl
    Joined: Mar 28, 2006
    Posts: 370

    James Curl
    Member

    I raced endurance Go Karts aginst Neil and his big brother Jim back in the 60's when Neil was just a kid and had lost track of both of them when I got married and quit racing. Drove my 48 flathead Plymouth to Bonneville in 2007 and while looking at the entrants list I saw Neils name and found their pits and had a long visit. I follow the daily results of Bonneville during speed week just to see what the Contrivance Engineering cars do and saw where Neil ran in the high 280s in AAGMR this year.
     
  18. James, it's a small world. He's a hell of a guy. My parents live out on HWY 29 in between Seward junction(183) and I35, that's where I grew up. My family had the old Candle Factory there on I35 for teh last 20 or so years before the economy and import candles shut it down last year. I hear Neil was quite the competitor back in the go gart days as well....;)
     
  19. Being on the salt for 12 to 14hrs everyday...believe me, this is short!
     
  20. meljr
    Joined: Dec 31, 2009
    Posts: 11

    meljr
    Member

    That is quite an inspiring first hand account. Thanks for sharing.

    -meljr
     
  21. krusty40
    Joined: Jan 10, 2006
    Posts: 869

    krusty40
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    Hans - Congrats (again)! and glad to get the whole story - well told! Sorry we didn't get to catch up on the Salt but y'all were really under the gun; us, we just cruised thru our runs. It is true that people are becoming more aware of our "high" style cars since between the three of 'em we hold 9 records. We'll all probably be illegal next year! Major props to Craig, you, Mike, and Chaz for persisting through the tech problems, spins, and all the other things trying to keep you from succeeding. Gotta go put a fresh motor in the (former) #325 - the new owner is hunting the C/GRMR record @ World Finals. vic
     
  22. WZ JUNK
    Joined: Apr 20, 2001
    Posts: 1,848

    WZ JUNK
    Member
    from Neosho, MO

    Great story. Congratulations.

    John
     
  23. firingorder1
    Joined: Dec 15, 2006
    Posts: 2,147

    firingorder1
    Member

    Hans, Congratulations!!!! Sorry we had such a short chat on the salt. Thats one red hat that was REALLY earned!!.

    Bill
     
  24. Beef Stew
    Joined: Oct 9, 2008
    Posts: 1,253

    Beef Stew
    Member
    from So Cal

    BTW, I did the tech inspection on the car and it was actually well sorted and didn't appear to have just been put together. Good job on that and THANK YOU. It seriously makes my life so much easier.

    BTW #2, while walking around the inspection area, Krusty40 calls me over and says "Hey, are you Beef Stew?" and I say "Well, yes I am... how'd you know?" and he's says "Oh, I just did."

    I don't if that's a good thing or not! :D :eek: :confused:
     
  25. Hans - Gratulerer med den røde hatten!
     
  26. krusty40
    Joined: Jan 10, 2006
    Posts: 869

    krusty40
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    Dude, you LOOK like a guy who would be named Beef Stew! Really! vic :)
     
  27. Vic,
    are you going to accompany the #325 car's new owner to the World Finals in October? Is he a rookie or an "old salt hand?"
     
  28. krusty40
    Joined: Jan 10, 2006
    Posts: 869

    krusty40
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    Yep, goin' to Finals with the new owner and help him and his crew get used to the car and its needs. Owner is an older Salt hand (has a SR that the D motor is going into) + is a big traditional hot rod guy. If you're goin", stop by and say hi. vic
     
  29. Yeah Vic, this car took some sorting. It has never gone this fast(has old streed rod shocks up front...) nor had a big block(weight), nor been into impound before. All the issues were valid, the car just wasn't originally built to be a record breaker so it wasn't scrutinized that close. As I have to plan my trips way in advance and get special permission from the misses to come play for 2 weeks(3 yr old boy and 1 yr old girl at home...) we had to fix it then and there as the Finals in Oct weren't an option....and I'll have to say my wife has never been on any of the car forums and wouldn't ahve a clue what SCTA would mean a few weeks ago...but after the first spin she sent me a text and said she saw I had a spin!!!! I guess she's watching more than I realize...I tried to tell her that meant I was just taking the car for a 'spin'...but she's pretty sharp...;)
    Thanks for the kind words, we'll catch up next year..;) Is Bob hangin up his LSR hat or?
    What's plan for finals, try to get James a hat or Jim driving?
     
  30. BLAKE
    Joined: Aug 10, 2002
    Posts: 2,783

    BLAKE
    Member

    Amazing story, HANS... and very well-written for a Norwegian guy. The side-to-side in the lane... the spin... like I was there! Awesome, and congrats on the hat!

    Next time yer in Austin... :D
     

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