the first year I attended Speedweek was 1970.... .the first year we raced was 1971.... so that makes 40 plus years for us.... and has it ever been a a lot of fun.... all in all!.... we set a few speed records over the years.... and we always talk about those....
It just brings to mind the whole concept that.... "facts ARE facts and nobody disagrees with the facts".... stories now..... they are the word pictures built around the facts..... and can THEY EVER BE DISAGREED WITH!
the simple fact of of any of us setting a record.... or getting into the two club..... the facts go like this..... Aug 22, 1991 213.246 MPH....
but when we tell the stories of setting that record..... a broken down truck on the side of the freeway.... towing a trailer with the race car and about 5000 lbs of extra stuff.... breaking two engines and working most of the event changing and piecing together motors.... a seemigly never ending srteam of sleepless nights.... and then driving 1000 miles non stop after that..... finding out that honing cylinders can easily be done above the toilet in the motel room if you unbolt the seat....
the stories never end.... and they are what the history of this is all about ..... and make it all worthwhile....
some of our stories almost sound too tall to be believe -even by those of us who were there when the events occured....
On another note though.... there are A LOT of people involved in this sport that are older.... the interesting thing is that it has seemingly always been this way.... I was a month short of being 16 at Speedweek 1970.... and my older brother is 2 1/2 years older.... well, in 1971, I was a month short of 17 and my brother was 19..... and we were racing!
My recollections of other people at the salt then was that they were older than us .... some by a lot of years! The names and faces I recall .... many of them can only look down from the "cosmos" these days- if they want to be at Speedweek.... and quite a few others are still with us in this life and they still come to Bonneville!
My lament is that none of my kids or any other nephews or nieces have ever really gotten involved.... and I ask where are the newcomers going to come from?....Although we do have a team member- who drove the lakester for the past couple of years and got a two club record at the world finals last year.... he has four boys ranging in age from 7 to 13 (about the same age range as my grandkids).... and all of them are motorheads!... and do they love the stories!.... (although we do have to watch out for the salty language at times) .....So.....maybe we will have another generation of kids to take over from us!.... I sure hope so!
One parting thought.....
In 1970, the record in A/Lakester, (which was when blown engines advanced one class and were limited to 488 C.I.D.- and a fuel only class) was held by Johnson and Shipley at 270.885 MPH.
The record in C/Gas Lakester (a gasoline only class with NO blowers allowed) has been above that speed for at least 8 years now- presently being 275.674 mph .... are we "setting the bar" so high now that younger people don't have any real hopes of setting these records unless they are lucky enough to be part of a team (as in a family member, really) that has the resources to build and run a fast car?.... and if that is the case, will the new generation appreciate what is involved and what an accomplishement it really is to run anything at Bonneville?
I guess us "old" guys will never really become irrelevant then, huh?
