Bonneville and Beyond 2010

Glad to hear from you guys. Sounds like a blast on the salt. We'll all hear from you when you finally get internet again!!

 

Since we've had no WIFI … we're about a week late on new postings. Sorry about that. Today we had to post this post, out of order, and we're piggybacking on someone's WIFI to boot! HA! We'll be in SF later today … and HOPEFULLY we'll be able to catch up with our other posts then. Here's a VERY special post …

Thanks to AussieSteve, we have had the honor and privilege to “pseudo” pit crew for EJ Kowalski and his Flat Head Powered, Altered Fuel, '29 Roadster. Since Friday his runs have been very consistent and improving with each pass. We counted 6 runs, two per day, before Monday morning, but that's just a guess on our part. The last run on Sunday EJ was just about 1 and a half miles per hour off the standing land speed record for his car class. So it was back to the pit for a bit more tweaking of the roadster and then the 7th (we think) pass on the Short Course (3 mile).

The weather for land speed racing Monday morning was magnificent. It was clear and mostly dry. A light breeze was blowing out of the west and it was about 83 degrees (about 28 degrees C). Nearly perfect for giving a long standing land speed record a run for it's money! There were a few delays for this and that reason and then it was finally 723's start. One more lengthy delay and he's off.

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After the start we ran to the PT Cruiser where we hoped to hear the tower announce EJ's speed. Which is unlikely to happen anyway since the short course is almost completely ignored by the race announcers to begin with. Of course, at precisely the moment that the timing official quietly announces EJ's speed the tower starts walking all over the radio transmission so we all missed the official speed! So we cruise over to the Timing Slips station and wait for EJ and the Crew, which consists of EJ's father Ed, Barry and Brian. It seemed like FOREVER for the team to drive back to the timing slips station and we waited nervously. Okay &#8230; we waited EXCITED nervously because the station officials let us see the timing slip! A qualifying speed of 163.8



They FINALLY arrived to get their official time &#8230; and we all stood around with our poker faces to wait for a genuine reaction. But we all had our cameras poised to video and photo document this momentous occasions! As EJ read the time the push car erupted in screams, woohoos and laughter and then they sped off to impound. There's only four hours to do any maintenance or service in the impound area and then it's a LONG wait until the 2nd run can happen Tuesday morning at 07:00!

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So, Tuesday morning FINALLY comes. The roadster got warmed up in the Impound Pit and then all of Monday's impounded qualifiers drove out of impound and lined up to be escorted to their qualifying track. The Bonneville sunrise was as picturesque and incredible as it was promised to be and luck would have it that the 723 Roadster was lined up in the perfect place to capture majestic pictures of that sunrise.



When all the impounded cars staged on their courses, the starts were going smoothly. EJ was 6 vehicles back, so the wait wasn&#8217;t too bad. He did his best to hold a poker face, but I'm sure his stomach was invaded by butterflies or something equally as fluttery. The team do their prerace checklist and EJ suits up. It's time to back up that first run of 163.8. The starter give him the OK &#8230; and he's off &#8230;

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Still nothing on the radio about the short course times &#8230; so we raced over to the Timing Slip Station and the SCTA official that was giving out the slips gave us EJ's &#8230; HE DID IT! He verified the NEW LAND SPEED RECORD for XF/FR with a speed of 163.233 making the new land speed record 163.5. WOOHOO!



So the wait at Tech Inspection was brutally long! Lots of folks broke new land speed records today! Finally, the Roadster is inspected and is signed off &#8230; and now it's official.

Congratulations EJ, Ed, Barry and Brian! We know you've been waiting A LONG TIME for this day! Your hard work, determination and dedication to land speed racing has paid off in spades!

Thank you all so much for making our first Bonneville the most incredible experience it could have been, and thank you for letting us be a part of your victory!

 

Uber-cool

 

Klaus: We met in the T Shirt line, I said I liked your "California" shirt, we had a laugh. Hope you had a great time. See you nect year.

 

It's really great, Klaus, that you and Cindy got to be part of that experience! I watched for you out on the Salt (actually mostly for your PT Cruiser) but didn't see you. I spent most of Monday watching cars launch from the line at both the Long Course and the Short course. Watching Flathead-powered cars run in the 150+ MPH range is mind-blowing. And the sunrises on the Salt-flats rate right up there at the top of gearhead experience!

-Jack

 

Dang. That is so friggin cool!

 

Great accomplishment for one of the best guys I've ever known.

 

A lot of people 'livin the dream' this week.............congratulations .


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Rich ... we agree with you 100%!

 

Klaus, mailman came today. I'm the proud owner of a 1950 IH pickup truck! I heard you were in the market...

 

Sorry we've been so silent after Bonneville, it's because we haven't seen, done and/or experienced cool things ... au contraire ... we've been basically nonstop since Bonneville so we'll post segments when we get back to Sweden.

Which we will be doing this evening and we'll be back in Sweden Friday (afternoon US time, nineish European time).

See ya out there!

Klaus and Cindy

 

Waiting and waiting.....