Bonneville Racing News 2013

Speed Week 2013: After many months of work to make all the necessary changes and with a brand new engine built by Kenny Duttweiler, we went up to the salt flats in August 2013 to make a few “shakedown” runs before going back in October with Mr. Butler.

We definitely benefited from having a couple of shakedown runs. On the first run we attained a speed of 195mph with only 10lbs of boost. The only problem was we forgot to tell our driver he only had 10lbs of boost and about 550hp. Demanding “more boost” we screwed it all the way in expecting the electronic boost control & traction control to be operating correctly. Well, it wasn’t and at about the mile and a half, the computer instantly gave the engine full boost (about 42lbs) and the car immediately lost all traction & spun out.

For our next run we dialed it way back only putting about 25lbs of boost and went out and ran a 216.111 with a 219 exit speed. That was enough to qualify us for a record. Not wanting to do anything stupid, we did not make any change for the return run the next morning and ran a nearly identical 215.337mph with a 218mph exit speed – giving us a new record of 215.724mph - a full 10mph above the existing record! Not wanting to push our luck; we decided to go home for the first time in 10 years with a new record and no broken parts. We had plenty of improvements we wanted to make for the October meet – change to a locked axle, refine our C02 system to control our electronic boost control unit, taller windscreen, raise the front end and add about 200 lbs to the front of the car.

We were all ready for the World Finals, but unfortunately that meet was cancelled due to bad weather and a wet course. The good news is – we are ready for next year!