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My
brother John and I are no longer salt virgins,
having returned last nite from our first trip to
Bonneville SpeedWeek to celebrate SCTA's 60th Anniversary
and to cheer on three California Roadsters
member's racing teams participation. Other CR members in
attendance were Jerry Kugel, Duane McKinney, Don Prieto,
Dr. Mark Van Buskirk, Chet Norris, Tony Correia, Jon
Kennedy, Jim St. Martin, Greg Rawls and yours truly Mark
Byer.
Jerry Kugel debuted his new 1932 Kugel Komponents'
Muroc/Magnason Blown small block roadster (C/BGMR),
with Jerry Magnason in attendance to fine tune his
engine. It was Jerry's goal to drive his new hot rod to
Bonneville and he made it as far as Baker before the
front bearings on the blower went away. So, the Kugel's
put the roadster back into the trailer and headed back
to the shop for an all niter, doing a turn
around the next day. They trailered the roadster
as far as Ely, Nevada and off loaded for the last leg
into Bonneville. Jerilyn Kugel got some seat
time with dad riding co-pilot and the roadster ran
perfectly into Wendover. They took it right to
tech for inspection and completed the first run that
afternoon. Jerry got strapped in for it's initial assault
on the salt and turned a very respectfully 192.519 MPH.
The next morning it was Jerilyn's turn to continue the
Kugel's family Bonneville racing tradition, with
dad Jerry and son Joe in the 200 MPH Club and son Jeff
in the 300 MPH Club. She had to qualify for her
license on the short course, with the added pressure
of The Discovery Channel rigging the roadster with
camera, conducting interviews and aerial footage
from a helicopter on her run down the salt. She
turned in a flawless run at 137.485 MPH, which
qualified her for the next licensing run. The
team packed the chute and got right back in line
for her next run which was 161.850 MPH, and qualified Jerilyn
for her final licensing run on the long course.
Wednesday morning the team readied the roadster
for Jerilyn's final licensing run and she put her
foot to the floor and pulled offf a 187.631 MPH
before the blower belt let go and she had hit the
kill button and pop the chute ending the run. So,
congrats to Jerilyn on obtaining her Class A
license. The final days of Speedweek did not
co-operate with the Kugel team, as they tried to get
more runs in the later part of the week. The
wind and mechanical problems with the tune limited
the maximum speed, but Jeff managed to pull of a run
at 201 MPH before they converted the roadster back
to street dress and drove her home, getting a
respectable 17 MPG. The Kugels plan on returning to
the salt in the second week of October 2008, with
Jerilyn attempting a 200+ MPH run, and Jeff wanting
to break the 243 MPH record for the class.
The Prieto Garage's prepared Flying Dutchman
Racing 1932/Hemi powered roadster (C/GR)
was also making it's debut at Speedweek with our
very own Dr. Mark Van Buskirk qualifying for
his Bonneville license. They got off to a
shaky start with some technical problems, but got
everything corrected and passed tech for a run
Wednesday morning. Dr. Mark completed a
138.22 MPH run to qualify for his first
licensing stage. He backed this up with
146.223 and 150.166 MPH runs to qualify for his
license. They also plan on a return trip to the
salt.
Duane McKinney with his Sundowner Corvette
was also at Bonneville Speedweek, but had
several mechanical problems including a bad
clutch. Duane and his crew worked very
hard to get the car running with Duane
completing numerous test runs, best at 242 MPH,
before attempting to get his wife Suzanne
qualified to start the licensing process. The
best run Suzanne was only able to complete was
about 90 MPH, but they'll be back also.
Our roadster buddy Tom Walsh (BAR), was back
at Bonneville Speedweek with his blown gas
1932 roadster (B/BSTR). It was driven by
his son Justin, who broke the class record of
233 MPH, with a new record of 241 MPH.
Congrats to Justin and Tom plus their team.
Bonneville is used only twice a year (August
and October) by SCTA for time trails on the
salt flats, and I highly recommend that if
you haven't been there put it on your Bucket
List. I've talked to many old
time hot rodders that have never been there,
but after my initial trip I'll be back.
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