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It's the
2006 World of Speed at Bonneville, and the Firebird of Carl and
Sue Cook qualify for a class record, finally...
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(AN UPDATE) The 2006 World of
Speed event has ended due to rain< here's the news in the
words of the USFRA as posted on their
website, "Rain
at the salt flats has left an inch of standing water in the pits
on Friday morning. At 8:30 AM the meet was officially ended due
to wet conditions and more rain in today's forecast."
While in reality the story of Carl and Sue Cook should be
nothing more than a side bar, it's real and interesting to me
because how I met them and how friendly they are. Their
story and hundreds like it is what makes Bonneville so special.
No matter what you want to run on the salt and how fast you want
to go, there's a place and class for you, and they'll be sure
you are safe in doing so and running in a safe environment. In
truth the USFRA event has more of a local flavor (they even
offer 130 and 150 mph club classes), even though racers come
from all over the country to run, it's run by people who live
the closest to the salt and have more reason to care for it's
preservation. Their site has considerable space devoted to salt
conditions and replenishment, and keeps everyone up to date on
the latest developments. I found their officials to be very
friendly, outgoing and helpful. In truth it's a more laid back
event, probably because there are only 100 plus entrants, but
the spectators had a free run of the starting line area, and
there were quite a few of them.
The USFRA hasn't updated yesterday's speed and record results
yet, I'll do a further update when they do. Sadly the Cook's and
others like them won't get a chance to back up their record
qualifying run, but I'm sure they'll be back, perhaps as soon as
the World Finals in Oct. if the salt surface can be put right
again. Rain doesn't always hurt the surface, and we didn't get
the expected high wind last night, those do more damage than the
water. It's going to be cool here this weekend, even cold at
night, but if we get some heat and sunshine in the next couple
of weeks the World Finals might still happen.
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Please note that there is more
2006 Bonneville coverage here from the SCTA
meet, and the Nugget
Nights Hot Rod gathering in August.
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Carl, Sue and "the crew"
in a timing system induced delay before their first run of the
day, a run that netted a speed 1.5 mph off of what they needed.
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***
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(9-14-06) On Tuesday evening while dealing
Blackjack at the Wendover Nugget I met Carl and Sue Cook of Nevada City,
CA. They had credential bracelets on so I asked them about salt
conditions, what course they were running and what class Carl was in. It
appears that the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association is running an
abbreviated version of the course run after The SCTA meet last month, when
they made the record runs with the JCB DIESELMAX streamliner,
with the pit area where the original starting line was. That's a long
course, leaving plenty of room to go fast. Carl Invited me to come out to
the salt and watch him run on Wednesday but I couldn't get out there
yesterday, the first day of the meet. I met them in The Nugget Wednesday
evening as they returned from a forced parts run to Salt Lake City (it's a
Wendover thing, we all do it), and promised to hit the salt first thing
this morning for the sunrise.
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Here's proof that I made it in plenty of
time for this shot, taken just outside the impound area. On the other hand
Carl and Sue knew something I didn't, that the USFRA doesn't start making
record runs until 8:00 a.m., and they probably wouldn't get to run until
9:00, so they weren't there yet. One car that was there though was this
beautiful creation driven by John Rank, an A Gas Modified Roadster,
working on a 265.64443 mph record qualifying run.
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This is one of the most beautifully
organized and detailed cars I've ever seen at Bonneville, everything is
purpose built, right down to the compact and functional towing rig and the
push bumper on the truck, great piece guys. I think the first run on the
car today was a "turnout," but John returned later to better his
Wednesday speed, running 268 mph or better if I recall correctly. An
"A" class car runs engines between 440-500 cubic inch displacement
(CID).
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Another car out early this morning was the
beautiful Seth Hammond "B" Fuel Modified Roadster, possibly
working on a 271.30089 "Q" run, note the king pin angle (caster)
on the front axel, it would be almost impossible and very tiring to go
anywhere but straight in this car.
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Back to the story of the Cook Family
Firebird, Carl bought the car, which was a Muroc Dry Lake class record
holder and brought it to Bonneville for the SCTA meet, falling short of a
"B" gas coupe record (373-439 CID) by less than a mph after
making 8 runs, 5 with Carl in the car. Wednesday it was the same story,
Carl ran 234.31444 on a 234.845 mph record before losing the belt that
caused the SLC parts run. This morning in his first run the car ran rough
and rich, and came up 1.5 mph short of the record, showing more than
enough speed out the back door, but that doesn't count.
Carl returned to the fueling station,
filled the tank and pulled off to the side to make some changes. He
changed the "pill," the restrictor in the fuel injection return
line to make the car run leaner and the car was found to be riding too
high (it looked that way in the picture above). That was fixed (and probably
was more instrumental in the speed increase we were about to see than
leaning the engine. Anyway, in Carl's final run of the day he went through
the final mile above 235 mph and had a trap speed of 238 plus, Carl had
qualified to set a new class record if he could back up the speed Friday
morning. I congratulated the Cook's in impound as I left the salt
flats with rain on the southwestern horizon. It hadn't rained here in more
than a month, which is why the salt was in such great shape. The rain held
off through the afternoon, but it's Thursday evening now as I post this,
and we just had a hard, cold rain storm. After 12 runs, Carl and Sue
Cook have the record they have been seeking within reach, I hope salt
conditions will allow their return run Friday or Saturday.
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This truck with a Bonneville history
qualified for a record yesterday and is another that will have to do it
all over again at a later date. On Wednesday the truck was on a very fast
run and littered the salt with driveline parts and pieces.
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A "D" Fuel Modified Streamliner
(261-305 CID)
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This "Drop Tank" is supposedly a
fiberglass replica of th original So-Cal Lakester (not the one shown
below from the SCTA meet), a P-38 drop tank that served as the basis for
early Lakesters on the dry lakes and Bonneville. Someone from the crew on
this car said a mold was pulled from the early So-Cal car and these
"rounder" versions were made from that, A "C" Fuel
Lakester would be powered by engines from 306-372 CID.
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***
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Oh yes, the 5050 "bike" was back,
the one with the 125 cc engine that runs so hast and has trouble running
back to back runs to set new records. Thursday the "bike" ran
fast enough to qualify for a new record in the first mile, but lost speed
after that.
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Here's a cockpit view of the 5050, note that
there is no padding. The only "cushion" the "rider"
has is his fire suit as he lays belly down and is strapped in. The top
belts are shoulder harnesses as you would expect (well padded). The wide
belt goes over the drivers waist and other belts from behind are brought
up between the drivers legs and are all gathered at the drivers waist
belt. The cable seen on the cockpit floor operates the belt release. I
asked builder Jack Costella "if the streamliner beat the driver up
very much?" Jack's pretty much matter of fact, and he said "it
depended on salt conditions and staying on course." He also said that
"on his last run he drifted off course and hit a cone and
stopped the car with the cone still stuck to the nose of the bike."
He also said "he can't take rides like that any longer and is done
driving it."
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You can't be a car person if you don't get
excited when you see a beautiful Cobra replica like this one. It may be a
fiberglass rendition, but it has all the right parts and pieces, and it
was extremely well done. Please forgive the logo in the license plate, I
wanted to mask the plate number, and that was the easiest way I could come
up with.
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