At Black Rock in September 1997 my buddy and I volunteered / were recruited to 'de-FOD' that part of the playa on which Breedlove was preparing to run.
After posing for a photo with Breedlove, John Ackroyd, and the
SoA car a group of FOD-ers we were driven out a couple of miles and instructed to walk in a line picking up anything of any substance on the ground. A select few were given 5 gallon plastic buckets into which found debris was to be collected and carried off.
More than once a FODer, including Yours Truly, found a 50-cal. shell casing embedded in the surface (I still have one as a souvenir in my wood shop). And more than once a FODer,
not including Yours Truly, found an intact and presumably live 50-cal. shell casing, which was then casually tossed into one of the buckets...
The playa had been used by the USAAF during WW II as a gunnery range (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovelock_Aerial_Gunnery_Range).
I think the concerns were around jet engine damage and not wheel damage, as both
SoA and
Thrust SSC ran on solid wheels. I further recall that Andy Green did not engage the
Thrust SSC afterburners until reaching 100 or 200 MPH in order to minimize the chances of ingesting a foreign object. Later in the season the
SoA suffered severe engine damage said to have been caused by FOD, ending their attempt, while
Thrust SSC went on to 763 MPH.
I followed the
Carbinite team's efforts, as reported on the web, pretty closely. It seemed like the car had the potential to go really fast. I was and am saddened by what happened to Rob F. and wondered what might have caused the crash.
Tim