News Alert || "LandSpeed" Louise Ann Noeth
July 17, 2016, Bonneville Salt Flats
When Al Teague ripped across the Bonneville Salt Flats in September of 1991 he had no idea he’d be at the middle of a quarter century historical record problem. No one did.
When San Diego land speed racer Nolan White qualified on one of Teague’s records in 2002 he questioned Teague about 425 MPH kilo speed because he thought it didn’t add up.
Teague responded to White saying he was sure he attained 425MPH at least one-way. And that was the first time Al became aware there might be an issue, but being the consummate American hot rodder, he was only interested in speeds recorded in the flying mile. Flying kilometer speeds? Who cares?
White was killed while piloting his streamliner during a record attempt a month later, rendering the point moot once again, principally because at the time the FIA was spectacularly, glaringly out of touch with American land speed racers and Teague had no idea how to go about fixing the issue.
By 2008, when the Burkland family and friends bested Teague’s 1991 World Record the problem painfully reared up like a bad case of shingles when the FIA, having restored its integrity with American racers, denied the Burklands the kilometer portion of the record.
Tom, the ever-calculating engineer, together with mom Betty, and dad Gene, had worked out that clearly there was a mathematical problem with the kilometer record but none of the FIA officials directly involved with the process were still alive, throwing the correction process into a quandary.
It wasn’t until this year that remedial traction was regained. It all began at Teague’s kitchen table with wife Jane serving up some fine adult beverages after a nice swim out back.
Al was clearly troubled when he brought up the subject and asked if I might champion his request with the FIA: He would give back the kilometer record altogether as he did not feel it was right to deny another racer their due.
The idea had great merit. I approached Dennis Dean, President of the FIA Land Speed Record Commission with the request to re-examine the details of both records.
He agreed, and a couple months later I heard from LSR Commission member, and long-time USAC timer Dave Petrali, after he made a close examination of the paperwork regarding the Teague kilo speed situation. Most of it contained comparisons of the report speed and the speed shown on the “Timing Tape.”
He was unable, despite a protracted study, to determine how the difference occurred. And that point has never been determined.
However, Petrali told me, that the kilo speeds presented for the record and the speed printed on the timing tape left justifiable questions in many minds. Further, based on email and phone conversations with the involved parties, it became obvious that a solution was necessary.
“A great deal of credit must be given to Al Teague for his expressed opinion that he didn’t think he actually ran the 425 mph speed claimed by the record,” explained Petrali.
“That by itself provided the justification for correcting the speed using the two direction speeds shown on the tape.
Since the timing equipment displayed speeds rather than elapsed time for a given distance it was necessary to calculate the kilo ET’s from the two runs, average those times and calculate the speed for the kilo.
That procedure changed the 425.050 mph kilo record speed to 410.221 mph.”
To be clear, this did not invalidate Teague’s ‘Spirit of 76’ 409MPH World Record. He is still the shown as record holder from 1991 until Tom Burkland averaged plus 416MPH in 2008.
The FIA record listing shows both the 1991 Teague records and the current 2008 records held by Burkland.
In the end, Elwin “Al” Teague keeps the same mile speed record and gets a new kilo speed record. Tom Burkland keeps his mile speed record and is belatedly bestowed the kilo record. And the historical record will be correct when we are all dead 50 years.
Tom Burkland, as you might imagine, was quite pleased when Petrali called him with news of another World Record. OK, read that again. How many people will ever get a call like that?
“It’s a tribute to Al that he stepped up to fix the problem,” Burkland remarked to me by phone. “I hope we have the opportunity to race on our record if the Bonneville Salt Flats is restored to safe racing conditions.
Al is the king at Bonneville! Let no one ever think he might even consider cheating one of his competitors out of their efforts. One of the most enjoyable parts of the streamliner land speed racing environment during that period was the camaraderie between the teams, the willingness to share information developed that would help each other succeed (and in many cases prevent them from experiencing very dangerous consequences), and the absolute honesty, integrity, and character displayed by these teams. It is an honor for the Burkland team to have been involved with such gentlemen.”
Teague complied with the same rules that all record setters that came before him were subjected to, and never tried to inveigle special consideration, or gain an unfair advantage.
“The corrections made by the FIA to the world records has given me peace of mind than I am not cheating anyone out of their rightful record,” said Teague with a distinct relief in his voice. “It’s a struggle for all of us to get there. I’ve had no regrets. I’ve had my time and enjoyed all of it, me, and all my family and friends.”
In my opinion, if we had nobility in this nation, the guy would be at least a prince, if not an outright king as Mr. Burkland suggests.
OFFICIAL corrected FIA World Record Statistics
Tremendous thanks to the FIA Land Speed Record Commission members.
Category A | Group I | Class 11
1-Kilometer Flying Start | Bonneville USA
410.221 Speed-O-Motive Streamliner
Driver: Elwin Teague August 21, 1991
416.561 Burklands' 411 Tom, Gene & Betty Burkland Streamliner
Driver: Tom Burkland September 26, 2008
1-Mile Flying Start | Bonneville USA
409.978 Speed-O-Motive Streamliner
Driver: Elwin Teague August 21, 1991
415.896 Burklands' 411 Tom, Gene & Betty Burkland
Driver: Tom Burkland September 26, 2008.
