Speed Week is off to mighty fast start

BONNEVILLE SALT FLATS — The 62nd running of Speed Week has thus far brought out the usual number of smiles and a fair amount of frustration from the field of high-speed racers gathered here.

Racing began on Saturday and will conclude on Friday. In all, more than 500 vehicles and their crews will have participated in races for world land-speed records this week.

And, it's likely very little will change before tent stakes are pulled and the caravan of cars drives off the salt and breaks off for homes located around the world.

More than 1,500 runs were posted in the first three days of the annual event, on three separate tracks racers and officials all agreed "are in excellent condition" ... fast, rock-solid firm and, in the case of the two long tracks, perfect for high-speed runs.

As was the case for George Poteet of Memphis, Tenn.

Thus far, he holds the meet's top speed of 416 miles per hour. Unfortunately, a broken driveshaft on an early run Tuesday cut short his record attempt. The record Poteet and partner Ron Main are going for is 350 mph.

Frustrating, yes, he said, "But we'll replace the driveshaft and try again."

The streamliner, powered by a 300-cubic-inch Chevrolet turbo-charged engine, is expected to easily break the 15-year-old record.

"And, if we do, we'll go to what we call our 'big engine.' It's a 358-cubic-inch Chevy we think is capable of going 450 miles per hour."

A quarter of a mile down pit row is the Ohio State student-build streamliner that is running on electrical power this year. For three previous years, the car was powered by hydrogen fuel cells. That car holds the record at 303 mph.

This car, said Cary Bork, mechanical grad student on the Ohio team, "has the same chassis, suspension and motor, but we pulled out the fuel cells and put in batteries.

"This, for us, is a test car. We're building a new Buckeye Bullet III. We'll take the things we'll learn from this car, like the inverters and clutch, and use them in the new car."

The Buckeye Bullet II test car can produce 550 kilowatts of power, which translates into nearly 800 horsepower. The student team hopes to break the electrical record of 315 mph set by an earlier Buckeye team.

Long-time Bonneville driver/owner Terry Nish is also on the salt this week for a test-and-tune.