I recently had a conversation with Mike Cook so I could understand what is going on with this deal.
Mike told me that this attempt in early Oct. is a private time event. It is in fact a part of a documentary motion picture which deals with the history of motorsports. The idea behind this part of the film is to show some early speed attempts at the salt flats with the folowup of taking a state of the art F1 car to the salt to show the performance improvements that have evolved over the years. The film will deal with many differnt aspects of motorsports.
This is a Mike Cook Motorsports promotion with Mike and his crew doing the dragging. He has hired the Rice Brothers to do the timing. There will not be an attempt on a BNI record as the car does not fit current class structures, this is not a SCTA-BNI meet. There may be some other streamliners present to act as scene filler. There will be an FIA steward present to certify some sort of F1 speed record that the BAR team is trying to set. Mike has talked with Roy Fjasted of the Bonneville 200 MPH Club about granting the driver an honorary membership much as A J Foyt, Andy Green, Sir Richard Noble, etc. if he in fact sets some sort of speed record.
Mike also mentioned that when the BAR team was at the salt prior to Speedweek that the traction control failed to operate as advertised. The car stopped after about 30 ft. It took the crew almost a full day to sort out the problem so that a full pass could be made. The sound of 19000 rpm bouncing off the mountains is said to be unbelivable!
