INDEPTH THE NEED FOR 030 SPEED They might have been ursurped as the location where ultimate land speed records are broken but the Bonneville Salt Flats remain the spiritual and actual home of speed attempts, as the FIA’s Land Speed Records Commission found out on a recent visit Photography by Erik Seo INMOTION | July 2011 December 2011 | INMOTION INDEPTH INDEPTH Crew chief Russell Russ and mechanic Mark McCaw check Speed Demon over between runs. 457.96 MPH over one mile, the new automotive engine-powered speed record set by Speed Demon on September 20, 2011 032 “It’s the first time I’ve seen smoke in the Hotel finger-food gathering laid on by 033 cockpit,” George Poteet says matter-of- Commission chairman Dennis Dean, an factly, after bringing his 2200 bhp Speed ex-Navy captain who describes himself Demon streamliner to a premature halt as “a retired ship driver” but who following an all-too-brief scorch down actually commanded the USS William the Bonneville Salt Flats – at close to 400 V Pratt during Desert Storm, and the mph. USS Chosin, a Ticonderoga-class guided “I’ve been on fire before,” he adds, missile cruiser generally believed to be still nonchalant. “But I’ve never seen the most powerful class of warships in smoke in the cockpit. I guess it’s oil from operation after aircraft carriers. a turbo, or something… The salt was Cook is a prince of a man, steeped in great up until then, like glass. I put it in Bonneville history. His father Doug was third and it really liked it! I’ve no idea of a great drag racer (‘rivals find Cookie the speed, but it wasn’t fast enough and won’t crumble’ is but one headline in the it wasn’t as fast as it was gonna be…” scrapbook Mike has brought along in a The incident is just another blip on pick-up that is white more because of its the radar for George, 61, stocky, greying, coat of salt than its original paint job). a veteran of such things. Another of No mean racer himself, and the father of Bonneville’s hurry up and wait lessons. Mike Cook Jnr, who drives a beautifully If legendary pilot Chuck Yeager ran here, prepared 252 mph contender in the this would be him. “I’ve” comes out as Highboy class, he’s the man behind the “ah’ve”, “oil” as “awl”. Poteet’s homilies FIA-sanctioned Mike Cook Shootout are delivered in a down-home drawl that that’s the subject of our visit. would do the iconic flier proud. We haven’t seen each other since the Speed Demon engineer Ken JCB DIESELMAX programme in August Duttweiler listens to his friend’s of 2006, having met the previous month “ I’ve no idea of the comments on their stricken machine, at Russ Wicks’ successful NASCAR and chuckles wryly at the man from speed record run at Bonneville, but speed, but it wasn’t fast Tennessee. “We gotta retrain him from his greeting is warm and full of the enough, and it wasn’t the tractor and the long plough!” friendship that is the hallmark of this “That was a good tune-up,” chips band of racers. They’re here not because as fast as it’s gonna be.” in Mike Cook, whom the FIA’s Land of the glamour, the reflected glory or the Speed Record Commission honoured chance of bumping into the occasional George Poteet, the previous evening in a Montego Bay A or D lister, but because they want to be Speed Demon INMOTION | December 2011 July 2011 | INMOTION INDEPTH INDEPTH here, to indulge their passion and follow easy as possible for contenders to have their dreams. Cook is a great dream their day in the sun. maker, frequently renting out fast cars It exists to examine and assess every so that the uninitiated can make their FIA-ratified record attempt, in all debuts on the salt. Supersonic record categories, to issue precise guidelines holder Andy Green’s wife Emma – ‘Mrs and then ensure that they were adhered Bonneville’ – has never forgotten her to before a record is approved or rookie ride here a few years back when rejected. Its role is thus to make sure she pushed a Honda to within a few that competitors, and their relevant mph of its class record, thanks to Cook. ASN, play by the rules. Touchingly, Cook has arranged for It is also there to provide strategic each of the attending Commission direction for land speed record rules, members – Dean; vice president Swede and in Bonneville one of the hottest Bo Swaner; the author, representing the topics the racers want to discuss is the UK’s MSA; legendary timer and record- one-hour turnaround time allowed breaking sage Dave Petrali, whose between FIA record runs; this starts father Joe succeeded Art Pillsbury in the when the timing beam is cut on the role back in 1960; Jost Capito of Ford, first run, and ends when it is cut as representing the US manufacturers; the vehicle exits the measured mile or Shinichiro Yoshigawa of Subaru, kilometre on the return run. representing the Asiatic manufacturers; Betty Burkland, widow of legendary Pierre Caporal of the FIA; and Bonneville figure Gene Burkland and accompanying FIA Senate President Nick mother of Tom, who set the fastest-ever Craw who is also President of ACCUS, piston-engined terminal speed mark of the US ASN, to be presented with 450.225 mph with their Burkland Special plaques commemorating the visit. in September 2000 (the mark that Poteet The Commissions’ trip to Bonneville beat in the week of the Commission is Dean’s brainchild, but far from being visit), leads a strident chorus pleading a jolly it has a serious purpose: to enable for a two-hour period. Terry Nish, whose those members who had not visited family-run Nish Streamliner, is another previously to gain first-hand experience 400 mph contender, adds his voice. of the atmosphere and the passion of It’s a subject the Commission has the racers. In the past the FIA has been discussed at great length in the past 034 criticised – rightly – for delays in getting and the case for an extension is 035 record holders their speed certificates. acknowledged to have been weakened No case was less forgivable than that by the fact that the ThrustSSC and of legend Don Vesco. By the time the JCB DIESELMAX teams, with arguably certificates for his career-topping wheel- more complex machines, were able driven record had finally been prepared, to complete safe turnarounds well he had succumbed to cancer. within 60 minutes. But the subject will Things have changed dramatically doubtless be discussed again in light since then, and the current Commission of the conversations and the evidence takes a different view of such matters gathered on site. And what a site it is. and is in Utah to learn more and The Bonneville Salt Flats are other to assure the racers that they are worldly. Imagine a place where you can Mechanics prepare appreciated. Events such as the actually see the curvature of the earth. Charles Nearburg’s Southern California Timing Association Where you can double or treble every Spirit of Rett Speed Week, which was first staged estimate of distance you might make. streamliner for after lengthy negotiations with the BLM Where you can get sunburned up your another run. back in 1949, or Cook’s FIA-sanctioned nose – or up the leg of your shorts – Nearburg boosted his Shootout, are their equivalent of the because of the reflection of the sun’s 2007 A-II-10 class Monaco Grand Prix or the Indianapolis rays from the baking white surface. It’s a record of 359.245 500. These are their Holy Grails. place where life falls into very different mph with an average speed of 366.374 mph. Of course, the Commission’s remit – and insignificant – perspective. Where ranges far beyond Bonneville. Its role speed seekers such as Poteet and Ron is about making sure that nothing will Main come to live out their dreams. be left to chance when Andy Green The salt flats were named for the finally pushes Bloodhound SSC through explorer Captain Benjamin Louis Eulalie the 1000 mph barrier sometime after Bonneville, and stretch for 30,000 2013. It is the keeper of the flame lit at acres close to the Utah/Nevada border. 39.24 mph in 1898 by Count Gaston de Today, they are a 110-mile drive west on Chasseloup-Laubat. But it’s also as much Interstate 80 from Salt Lake City airport, about protecting the integrity of less but they were once infamous as the esoteric records set all over the world place where the Donner-Reed migrant and at all sorts of class levels, as well as party, seeking a shortcut to California fostering interest in this oft-underrated in 1846, suffered privations that forced branch of motor sport and making it as them to resort to cannibalism. INMOTION | December 2011 December 2011 | INMOTION The FIA-sanctioned Mike Cook’s Bonneville Shootout in September saw a variety of records broken. George Poteet (top left) landed a new record for automotive engine- powered machines with Speed Demon (middle right); Mike Nish drove his Royal Purple streamliner (middle left and right) in pursuit of the FIA”s Category A-II-9 record, while Richard Assen (top right) set a new FIM Class II, Type II record of 261.240 mph. INDEPTH INDEPTH Land speed records Promoter William Rishel was the first don’t just mean man to appreciate the salt flats’ potential turbofan-powered while scouting a cycle race course from machines such as New York to San Francisco in 1896, but Andy Green’s international fame came in the 1930s ThrustSSC, but encompass a wide through the efforts of Salt Lake City array of power endurance record setter Abner ‘Ab’ types and vehicle Jenkins and his Mormon Meteor.