Nice article in Hot Rod. 
Was that your car at the Brooks and Dunn semi a couple years back?
If so, would you mind telling us the story.
Thanks, Don
Sure Don, thanks for asking. It may have looked a little more dramatic than it was.
In 2009, Sergio (my young apprentice / crew chief) and I built the Buick on a cement pad, outside my art studio. It's unique look landed it with a small feature in a local Santa Fe fine art magazine called TREND.
Ronnie Dunn and i have some mutual friends. He has a home in Santa Fe. He and I had only briefly met a time or two at benefit events.
He saw the picture via our mutual dear fiend Jim Arndt (famous photographer who brought us the Marlboro Man)
He gave me a call and asked if he could use it for his new solo career "bad boy" image photo shoot. I agreed.
We met and hit it off right away.Turns out Ronnie was season points champ (Legend cars) a couple times at a circle track in Tennessee.
He was VERY interested in Bonneville and asked about the cars technical / handling design. He seemed quite "race savvy".
After the shoot I offered him the drivers seat for the upcoming Speedweek, if he wanted to experience it.
After about a month, he called and accepted the offer.
He also offered the use of his Legends race car hauler. I accepted.
Unfortunately, that late summer, I decided to pull the engine for a "check-up" and shave the head .030 to increase compression and bump power.
We did not have time for dyno or test runs.
Ronnie shows up, goes thru Rookie orientation and Tech, launches down the course, breaks the class record at the 2 & 1/4, and melts the pistons about 50 yards from the 3 .
Betty was detonating because I made a math error in the compression increase and we were running the wrong fuel.
Ronnie packed it up and went back on tour, not looking or feeling very heroic.
End of story, really.
*No money changed hands, no sponsorship, no apparent further interest.
