As a team that likes to learn from our previous mistakes, you will all be pleased to hear that after last years extended Las Vegas stopover. We have now greased all of the trailer wheel bearings! Great news and well done team USA!!
Carrying on with the good news, the car has made a visit down south to Encinitas, CA. Specifically to Furgersons Garage workplace of our illustrious master mechanic Rich Stratford. Using their latest and most up to date equipment Bruce and Rich were able to double check all of the wheel alignment and suspension set up.
Thankfully nothing untoward was found and apart from a slight ride height difference at the rear everything was well within tolerance.
This was the first time the car has been up on a ramp for quite some time and the opportunity to have a proper investigation was too good to be missed.
Just as well really, thanks to the eagle eyes of Bruce and Rich one of the armoured high pressure fuel lines appears to have deteriorated to such an extent it was weeping fuel. Very odd as both the feed and return pipes are the same age and are designed to last considerably longer than this.
Still, at least this was found and rectified before it became an issue.
At the same time the guys took the opportunity to replace the errant alternator from last year. It was replaced in the heat of the moment during the final days of speed week last year and was quite frankly never up to the job. Another job ticked off the list.
The next step is a little less simpler, we have decided to completely redesign our underfloor. The first version was wonderfully effective and made all of Harry’s very hard work, and Ian and Andy’s sweat and effort fitting it worthwhile.
Towards the end of speedweek last year there was a lot of concern about the floor hitting the floor as we tried to go over 175 mph.The solution at the time, due to time constraints was to run without it on our final few runs.
Despite the car feeling a lot ‘looser’ we managed to get up to 184.065 mph our highest speed yet.
The concept for the new floor is to add a venturi into the floor. A venturi is fundamentally a reversed funnel shape the runs centrally under the car. The air expands as the funnel opens at the rear of the car, this creates a low pressure zone ‘sucking’ the rear of the car down, increasing downforce and therefore traction.
The other thing we are looking at is a major structual issue with the rollcage. We have had an issue at the last few meetings with the side head restraints around the driver not coming forward far enough. It is not as easy as simply lengthening this area as, if it were any further Ian would not be able to get out of the car.
Our solution is, rather than moving the restraints further forward we are going to move the drivers head back. Unfortunately this area is currently filled with some very heavy duty metal. The plan now is to cut this metal out and then replace it with some curved metal which will give us the distance we need.
A lot of welding and a lot of maths involved.
As members of the SDRC (San Diego Roadster Club), BNI (Bonneville Nationals Incorporated) and the SCTA (Southern California Timing Association) we are fortunate enough to be aware of a lot of the ‘behind the scenes’ discussions.
This year there has been some very distressing news.
Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah are run by the BLM (Bureau of Land Management). Their entire reason for existence is to manage and care for a lot of the national parks and areas of natural beauty that make up so much of America.
To be blunt the BLM have seriously dropped the ball! Whether there is a concerted effort to stop racing at Bonneville or the organisation is not able to carry out its mandated tasks.
To demonstrate what we are talking we will add a couple of quotes from various meetings held in the last few weeks.
This is taken from the minutes of the last SCTA meeting.
SCTA Save the Salt Meeting 5/22/2025
Those attending: Land Speed Louise Noeth, Allyson Dean, Russ Deane, Larry Volk, Russ Eyres and Gary McGavin
1. Stuart Gosswein and Eric Snyder have both reported previously to me and the Save the Salt group that no salt was laid down again in late 2024 or early 2025 by Intrepid. Intrepid told them that they were told by the BLM NOT to return any salt last year. When asked who at the BLM told Intrepid not to return any salt, the Intrepid rep said “I’ll get back to you.” He didn’t.
2. LS Louise asked every body to develop a list of 5 hot topics as a “to do list” for the Save the Salt organization to take to social media so that the lay public becomes aware of the critical nature of the salt decline under the BLM mismanagement. a. I will develop my list of the five hot topics as I see them and send them to Keith Pedersen and Bill Lattin for approval prior to sending them on to LS Louise and Allyson Dean (the social media chairperson for the group at [email protected]). b. The list of five things should be of interest to the lay public for their education.
3. LS Louise suggests that the Save the Salt effort needs an Executive Order by President Trump to force the BLM to manage the salt flats per their charter. The following is based on my research apart from the 5/22/2025 meeting:
1. A 2018 report says that between 1960 and 2016 that 18.7 million tons (an average of 325,000 tons of salt per year) were removed from the salt flats.
2. Recently, Intrepid has removed closer to 1.5 million tons per year.
3. NEVER has Intrepid returned anywhere near 1.5 million tons of salt per year. a. It doesn’t take a genius to see why the salt extent in area and depth is decreasing.
4. As near as I can tell, Intrepid has NOT returned any salt to the salt surface since 2022.
a. Is all this at the direction of the BLM?
b. Intrepid isn’t explaining anything to Stuart or Eric.
This is taken from the minutes of the last SDRC meeting.
Bonneville is fast approaching on August 2nd through the 8th.
Russ Eyres gave us a salt condition report he helped to compile.
He told us the salt is in poor condition and Jim Knapp emailed that this might be the last Bonneville Speed Week. Russ told us there are over 500 entries so far so the lines might be long. Russ said that last years starting line is all dirt and it’s all dirt out to the three mile. That’s where the starting line will be. The salt is less than one inch thick most of the way down the long course. He said there will probably be only one good long course this year too. He says if it rains even a little bit there may be problems getting off the salt as the dirt turns to mud.
Aldous Huxley told us the provisions to aid the national parks was removed from the Big Beautiful Bill just passed so the BLM will take no responsibility for the salt condition.
Intrepid Mining is supposed to replace the salt removed from the salt flats but with no enforcement from the BLM they have not put one bucket load back on Bonneville.
They are supposed to pump 800,000 tons back to Bonneville but no BLM attention payed to this.
As you can imagine we are seriously worried about this. As a predominantly UK based team we are seriously restricted in our potential actions, to try and highlight this travesty.
It seems the power of ‘big buisness’ and the lure of material greed is plundering this beautiful and rare natural beauty.
To our American friends we beseech you to reach out to your senators or congressman, to try and prevent the loss of this place before it’s gone forever. From this side of the Atlantic it is incomprehensible that such a thing could be allowed to happen.
MAKE BONNEVILLE GREAT AGAIN!
Rant over!
Thank you for reading these messages, we feel we are bringing all of you along for our adventure and really wish it were practical for you all to come out and experience just a small part of this.
