Your First SpeedWeek ? Tell Us about It

[Stan Back]

My first time was in 1972 with Phil Stevenson. He drove his 55 Chevy wagon up from Southern California.  We slept on the picnic tables at the Pyrraghannaut(or whatever) Lakes on the way.  He changed the back tires and wheels to 18-inch Halibrands.  One tire was an Indy(?) and the other was a Bonneville(?).  One was at least 1/2" taller than the other, and they both showed cords, but were stamped "OK for 175".  He went 149 MPH. It had a 390" Cadillac with four 97s (I had a wastebasket full of them from my 6-pot street roadster plus more from our drag roadster). He bought the manifold at a swap meet for $20. He won trophy from the SCTA who had, at that time, an award for the fastest car driven there.

[aircap]

1998 - the 50th. Arrived on Friday afternoon and left the following Friday afternoon. It was the most satisfying motorsports event of my life.

[Dodge Brother]

Just a newbie. First time was 2016, my son and I went as spectators. I've been back every year since, last year as a racer, well, let's say with a race car. We didn't get to run it due to conditions and time. It's really hard not getting to go this year but next year just try and stop us!!!!

[jdincau]

A Bonneville Saga or "The Calamity Kids Vs the Salt", chapter one
     In 1962 my brother Mike bought a Dodge Dart 440 2 door hard top with the 410 horsepower Ramcharger option. This was the 413 wedge, 2-4brl, cross ram engine. It was stock except for 8.20x15 Goodyear Blue Streak tires, traction bars and a 2.93 gear ratio. Mike made new front spring hangers extended down to provide mounting holes for the traction bars along with new U bolt plates under the axle for the rear. The bars themselves were early Buick pannard rods from the junk yard.  This whole saga is Carmen Pisano?s fault as he told us we ought to run it at Bonneville. The entry name on #148 was Dincau Brothers and Logan. We ran 152, faster than the old record but Norm Thacher had already bumped it up to 167. My dad went along to chaperone and all four of us slept in Ken's grandfather's 1/2  ton Dodge truck with a camper shell (AKA the weapons carrier). Mike drove the race car to Wendover. We had provisions to tow it home if we broke it. We cooked all our meals on the tailgate. Joe Pisano promised to let us use the facilities in their motel room to shower but they didn't get there till Monday. The Carmen Paisano modified White trash truck car carrier blew its tranny in Bishop so Joe flat towed the Studibaker to Wendover after going back to LA for his pickup. We pulled the pan on the Dodge to make sure all was well and found a few flat rod bearings. We learned from Norm Thacher that there was a service bulletin to put grooved mains in to improve the oil flow to the rods. Mike and Ken drove to Salt Lake to buy a new set of main bearings and have them grooved, a trip we were to repeat a few times over the years. We drove the Autolite rep. Art Chrisman crazy, we were the only production car to require warm up plugs. We could get jets for the then new AFB's but no leaner step up rods. So we put in the leaner jets and left the step up rods out. This meant it couldn't idle without being super rich. Art gave us some hot plugs to warm it up on then we changed them just before making a run, Art was a neat guy. The stock distributor shaft was bending at high rpm causing the spark to wander. We learned a valuable lesson regarding rules and their interpretation when we noticed that Thacher's grille was blocked off with a piece of flat black sheet metal. It is worth noting that the driver's equipment was a Bell helmet loaned at no charge from the Bell auto parts tent at the salt and a pair of white coveralls dipped in a fire retardant solution provided by the SCTA. We got our picture in Popular Hotrodding and had a great time. Indeed we were hooked. Mike also ran the car at El Mirage (139), where Bill Leroy brother of San Fernando Valley Motors line mechanic Danny Leroy loaned us the narrow front tires off his Studebaker when the front end seemed to be sliding around with the big stock car tires we had. SCTA 1/2 mile drags at Riverside (119) and the 1/4 mile drags at Pomona  (112 & 12.45).
      Joe Pisano gave us the "calamity kids" moniker as in a short period of time I was burned in an industrial accident, Mike was blinded in one eye colliding with a truck on a bike and Kenny ran his 409 Chevy into a phone pole when he fell asleep driving home from work.

[Beef Stew]

My first Speed Week was 1959. I got a second in class aka first loser

Back then there was no speed limit outside of cities and rural towns. We were flat-towing at 75 mph and a Nevada Highway Patrol officer didn't even look, as he sped past 

The most memorable part of the trip was seeing Sally Rand, in Vegas, on the way back 

[WOODY@DDLLC]

1970 with two buds racing their bikes and one other driver. We drove a Dodge 440 6-pack straight through from Ohio. Slept in tents. Got to help my bud Jerry adjust the valves on Bert Munro's bike. Drove another guy's El Camino while he hung on the door handle with his 3-cyl BSA. Way too much to tell here! Took five years for me to get back with my CB750 for five runs - no traction - no record - five more years to pay off the credit cards! Check my forum photos in 1970 & 1975. Been coming back steady since 2007 - crewing or just hanging out. Will miss all-y'all this year! 

[jimmy six]

1974 on vacation with wife and kids stopped in Wendover to see what happens. Already had purchased a drag racing 40 Chev to convert to land racing. Returned in 75 and set a record in X/VAlt with problems. Returned in 76 and set 2 very respectable records which stood for many years. With a lot of luck our name has been in the book since 1975. JD

[Tman]

2003. My wife at the time was working at the Tracy Aviary in SLC for the summer. Came out for a long weekend to see her, ride some mountainbike and get food poisoning. Mikey Harrington (my photog pal) and I did a shop tour and then he took me to his favorite Chinese buffet in SLC. I got so sick that afternoon I barely made it to the Salt. BobK had a room for us at the Motel 6, I recooped for a few hours and was able to make it out on the Salt the next morning. I was gutted but it was worth it. Got to see the Phoenix, Flatfire and other runs. Met some old friends and made many more.

[Clay Pitkin]

My first time at Speed week,
Jeez has it been that long already!  My how time has gone speedily fast!
Well, for my first experience on the salt, it would have been 1989 or 1990. I forget, and I am only 47!
I would have been 16 or 17 yrs. old.
My Dad first attended in 1955.
We (My Dad & I) drove out in my parents Red 1984 Ford Mustang, no A/C. I recall my dad saying we would take Sandwiches to eat and Soda pop to drink, and we would sit inside the car and watch the racing! I think for extra protection, I took a baseball hat but I am not sure.
I do have some pictures of those Speed weeks, and some video still on VHS, yes I still have a player to play them as well.
The very next year, we attended Speed week, and this time we came more prepared;  We brought some lawn chairs to sit on, of course without shade!
I do recall one time, Mike Cook ran a beautiful Blue ford Thunderbird, and man did that thing go fast! We were patiently waiting and found that he would be running in the morning of the following day. My Dad and I drove home that night, and he came and asked if I would be interested in getting up in the morning, driving back out to Watch Mike go? I said sure, and off we went, (I live 2 hrs. from Bonneville).
Since then, I have been very fortunate. I purchased a car to run at Bonneville, and have been able to attend every year spectating consecutively with the exception of 1 yr. since then. I have run the car in 2008, 2011, and am looking to come back in 2021!
Not trying to be downer, unfortunately, my mom passed away from cancer in 2013, and my dad passed away in 2014 from cancer. So in memory I have (2) cancer ribbons on the hood of my car for the memory of my mom and dad. In addition, I now have a picture of him in my car so when I run the car again; he will be there with me, and a picture of my mom in the push truck (she did not like loud things, or going fast but she always supported us).
I have to thank my dad for showing and teaching me the love of automotive mechanics, and cars in general. His favorite was to hear a Blown V- 8 just blazing across the salt; that unforgettable whine of a blower and loud exhaust!
See you on the salt!
Clay

[kiwi belly tank]

This is the extremely short version of my first year that was 88. I had been in Aus for a few years & decided to make the trip of a lifetime to Bonneville before going to work a new job in Papua-New Guinea.
Landed at LAX in July without plans or contacts. What a culture shock! Pasadena had been mentioned in Hot Rod Mag a few times so that sounded like a good place to start & I got a cab to a Motel 6. Next morning I got direction to a Mexican garage down the street to rent a car. A 1979 Mercury Zephyr (cheap) with the instructions "if you crash it, walk away". Driving, ...hell that was a real shocker on the wrong side of the street!! I drove around until I found a guy working on his roadster in a driveway, he gave me a contact & so on & so on until I ended up at Monrovia Auto body with Studebaker Joe & his sons.
Next day I met Roy Sepanon there who was SCTA treasurer I believe at that time. He gave me a place to stay in Arcadia & his spare Cadillac to drive. The next day he introduced me to Al Teague who was thrashing on Betsy in the tiny garage at his mom's place in San Gabriel getting ready for SW. I rolled up my sleeves & worked on Betsy for the next 2-1/2 weeks before heading to the salt. I think we ran 378 at that meet. That was the the direction change point from the New Guinea jungle to the LA jungle where I joined the Teague Tribe & worked full time on Betsy until 91.
  Sid. 

[datadoc]

  I've enjoyed reading about people's first trip to the flats so I thought I would add mine to the mix.
My first trip to the flats was in 1961. I was 19 years old and lucky to meet Don West who lived in one town over from where I lived. I was directed to his house to see if he could get me a tach for my 1958 Chev.  I was in awe looking in his garage, he had a race boat and a chopped 53 Stude. I was hooked after looking at Bonneville pictures on his garage walls. Don became my mentor for several years.  The timing was good because I had recently lost my drivers license for too many speeding tickets. I also was working at Sperry Rand in Salt Lake City 12 hour days 7 days a week. So with all the over time money why not take my Chev to Bonneville. That started the journey, out with the 348 engine then oversize pistons, new 409 heads, Herbert roller cam, Vertex mag, Algon fuel injection, and rented tires (5 bucks apiece) from a SLC road racer. The rules were simple then, no roll bar the gas tank (Moon) was on the front floor board.
  So come August armed with a signed consent form from my grandmother and the $28. entry fee, I was ready. When you're young it doesn't take much to get ready for a trip. I had 3 friends that were going to go with me. One, the most important because he volunteer to use his car to flat tow the Chev the 2 hours from home to the flats. Another friend conned F.G. Ferre & Sons, a Salt Lake City early speed shop, to give us $40. for painting their name on the front fender. The plan was to use the $40 for the 4 of us to buy food for the week. In those days the meet started on Sunday so we towed out Saturday night. There was no plan on anywhere to sleep so we drove off the road just East of the town to sleep for the night. I remember that it was raining so I just rolled under my car to sleep. I was so tired I could have slept anywhere. I was working the 12 hour days so to finish the car I only slept every other day. My friends slept in the cars. Later in the week the owner of the Shell station in town took pity on us and let us sleep on the lawn behind his station and we could use his sink to wash up. I can only imagine what we must of smelled and looked like. I don't think we could run the car much because of the wind/rain and a poor course. A couple of things stand out in my mind about that first trip. One was going down to the airbase and looking through the abandoned desks and all the left behind B29 manuals. I don't know when the base was shutdown but it must not have been too long before 1961 because of all the items still there. I would now like to have some of those manuals to thumb through. Another thing I remember that still strikes me funny was one of my crew being a character was talking to some girls while I was working on the car at night at the Chevron station next to the Stateline casino. I had a issue were I only checked number 1 cylinder for valve to piston clearance which turned out to not account for the Jahns cast piston not being all the same. I had the head off and was sitting on top of the engine with a hammer and wood chisel (I have no idea how I found a chisel) trying to cut deeper valve pockets in one piston. So I hear my crew guy tell the girls that he was the driver and his mechanic was making a last minute adjustment to his engine. A day or two later I broke a clutch adjustment bolt and we got permission to take one off a car in the junk yard that was on the other side of the Stateline. I was under one of the cars pulling the trans to get to the bolt that I needed and the smell around that area was terrible.  We keep saying that someone must have died there. Sure enough we heard later that they found that someone had in fact climbed into one of the cars and died. One other big difference between then and now is to get to the flats you just slowed down and turned off the old highway and drove out to the pit area. All I can say is what a grand adventure for a young person that had no idea what they didn't know.

[jdincau]

Great story datadoc

[ronnieroadster]

My first trip to Speedweek was i believe 1983. Flew into Salt Lake city from Connecticut rented a car and headed West on I-80. Arrived to find the flats were under water! Tech inspections were taking place at the air field but the water never went away it wasn't long the event was cancelled  . Never even heard an engine fire up. Got back in the rental car headed East on I-80 got back on the plane and headed home. Way back then I had no idea one day I would hold a number of records at Speedweek and become a lifetime member of the 200 MPH club. Today at least for me SCTA means Senior Citizen Timing Association it was worth the wait.
 Ronnieroadster

[Stainless1]

My first SpeedWeek... really has to start way before I was able to go.  Growing up the battle at Bonneville was in the news and the movie theaters... all the car magazines covered the salt.  It was just a dream.... or day dream for a kid from small town Kansas to ever race there.
I enlisted in the Air Force when it looked like my 2S was not going to continue and my low lottery number was looming.  I ended up at Lowery AFB for training in early 72.  Met Johnboy there... I had a car, he needed a car so we went car shopping on South Broadway.  Drove by one lot that had a Studebaker Wagonaire, I was driving a 62 GT Hawk those days, and we tried to buy JB a car... the crotchety old man told his wife to tell us he didn't have time to sell us a car... we persisted and managed to meet Ben Jordan.... we were going to school 6 to noon... so in our spare time we started hanging around his shop.  He had a couple of Fiats he was playing with for Bonneville... Then one day he went to CA to pick up a new Citroen SM one of his customers ordered... his lot was the Fiat, Citroen, Ferrari dealership and exotic car repair in Denver.  He brought it back... took us for a ride... what a car... beautiful leather interior, I had never been is a car that nice or as sporty... the Maserati engine was quite powerful.  Then he had us strip out the interior, install a roll bar, put the drivers seat back in, add racing belts and he drove it to SpeedWeek.  When he brought it back we cleaned it up, put the interior back in and he delivered it.  I think JB has the Sports Racing class trophy from that year. 
Well life happened, work happened, and it was 1978 when I got the chance to go to Bonneville.  We took 2 Fiats and a streamliner... stayed in the Patio Motel... Dixon always saved a room for Ben, he would call when we left Denver... Inspection at the airport... Set a record in I/GT that was was protested and taken back because they determined the padded package shelf behind the front seats of the factory Fiat Abarth OTR race car was "suitable for continued adult occupancy"... the other Fiat wouldn't run right and we crashed the rear steering streamliner... attended the lightning show at one of the airport hangers... just too much sensory overload in the entire experience...
I met so many amazing people... saw cars that appeared in Hot Rod, met Don and Rick Vesco, Fred Larson, a crazy wild haired guy in Vesco's pit that said he took pictures for Cycle magazine... Freud, also Miler Mike, Gene, Betty and Tom Burkland, and so many more it is hard to recall and name them all...  was awe struck.... and hooked
I crewed and spent time in Denver every year building on race cars we took to Bonneville.  We swapped the I motor into the Abarth Zagato and it set a record.
In 1984 I had an idea to take our record holding I/GT and make it a J/MS... We called a Board member, he thought that was the innovation they wanted for MS... told others and 4 days later called back and said no we would not be allowed to put a motorcycle motor in any automobile but special construction....
(Luckily someone from CA thought of that years later so it is now allowed  ) That made us call Lynn Yakel and get his take on putting wheels on the outside of the streamliner body he designed.  He gave us locations and tread widths... 10 days later we were on the road to Bonneville and Bockscar's first record, J/GL at about 134 MPH I think.
In 2000 we stretched Bockscar about a foot and I made my "rookie" pass. 
So there's first Bonneville to first drive at Bonneville... condensed version 
 

[Stan Back]

Stainless ?

I stayed at the Patio in 1972. If you know, tell me if the floors were dirt or the carpet was just that dirty.  I couldn't make up my mind.

Stan