We have arrived at Bonneville!
Last year we managed to all bring seperate vehicles and all drove alone, so this year we decided to be a little more environmentally friendly.
Once again our prince and saviour Bruce came up with a marvellous suggestion, he owns the fabulous 1975 GMC motorhome we slept in last year and a huge pick up truck capable of towing the race car with the Triumph bike and equipment in the back.
This takes care of all our sleeping arrangements and logistical support intwo vehicles. Sorted!
Alas, the speed gods were not in a hurry to bless our adventure this year.
Two weeks before we weere scheduled to leave the gearbox in the motorhome decided to eat itself.
Bruce and Rich spent a few evenings trying to fix it, but finally had to admit defeat when after the rebuild it inexplicably lost reverse gear.
No worries, we’ll rent another one.
On the day of the two Ian’s arrival Bruce collected a modern very well equipped motorhome from a rental company before driving out to collect them from the airport.
The next day Bruce and Ian G got in the motorhome to drive up to Bruce’s workshop in the high desert where the Jensen is stored. Ian N followed on behind in the pick up.
About 12 miles from the workshop we all pulled over as the motohome was overheating badly. It turns out the head gasket on the modern motorhome had failed.
Two in as many weeks!!!
Thankfully the rental company were a very reputable organisation and couldn’t have been more efficient. The original one was collected by tow truck about two hours later and the replacement one arrived about an hour after that.
This didn’t cause us any delays as we had some minor fettling to do to the car following our last event in November. Plus a few safety checks where it had been sitting. It did however create a lot of worry until the replacement arrived.
The next day saw us heading off to Ely, this is a small town about seven hours from Pinion Hills and two hours from Bonneville.
Having spent the night in the small town we woke early and headed off to Bonneville.
The roads between Ely and Wendover are very straight and very tedious. There were only two points of excitement on the journey.
At one point we were told to pull over off the road as there was an oversize load coming the other way. An absolutely massive truck carrying what looked like the bucket from an earth mover that was about three lanes wide (on a two lane road!) rushing towards us at about 70 mph.
The second ‘highlight’ was whilst travelling through some resurfacing works a stray stone shattered the drivers side window of the pick up truck that Ian N was driving. We were however so close to Wendover, it wasn’t a huge issue.
As soon as we were through Wendover we parked up the RV at the bend in the road where Crow and the rest of the gang had made space for us. We then headed out on the salt.
The salt couldn’t be more different than our last two visits. It was so much more like 2018.
The course and the pit area look as close to pefect as we have ever seen!
The rest of the day we spent setting the pit area up and starting to prep the car for tech inspection.
The heat was starting to take its toll and so we got half way through and then decided to call it a night and then head out next morning to finish it off.
Once back at the Bend, Andy arrived and after sharing some dinner and a few adult beverages we crashed for the night.
Next morning, we went out to the salt, Andy and Ian N carried on fitting the last of the Aero devices on the car while Bruce and Ian G took the Finishing Straight time off to tech inspection.
After a brief discussion about Ian G’s leathers he eventually got his passes and was all set for his first run on Saturday.
Ian N and Andy got the car finished and as soon as Ian G and Bruce had finished with the truck we took the car for tech inspection.
For the second time the car passed tech inspection at the first time of asking!
The relief on camp was palpable.
The only thing left was to head back to the pits, park the car up, decorate it and head back to the camp to celebrate.
