![]() He is hoping to join the 200 mile per hour club by Friday in his relatively small car. ![]() Others, such as Tokyo-based driver James Watanabe, have more modest goals. One of those teams was Cook Racing, which shipped its bright orange G/BFS vehicle from New Zealand to Los Angeles by boat in a 40-foot container, a process that took five weeks.Ĭrew member Mark Ballantine of Auckland, New Zealand, said they were hoping to set a land speed record of 350 miles per hour in their class. Carlson said there were 446 pre-registered vehicles that includes teams from 12 countries. With a shorter course and less time, he is hoping to hit about 425 MPH before the meet ends Saturday at noon.Īs is always the case, there are numerous interesting stories at Speed Week. Vesco said the goal is still for Turbinator II to record Speed Week’s fastest time again this year. Photo courtesy of Tom Wharton | James Wantanabe of Tokyo hopes to go 200 MPH at Speed Week. He called the course “very slippery” and like many expressed concern about conditions on the Salt Flats. “We have a failsafe that shuts the engine off,” said Vesco, whose late father Johnny raced in the first Speed Week in 1949. ![]() Then, when the crew tried to trailer the vehicle to take it back to the pits for work, the winch on the trailer broke, causing a frustrating morning for what is probably the fastest vehicle in the meet. The Utah-based Vesco crew had Spangler, from California, ready to roll on the salt as the first vehicle out Tuesday, but a delay on the course caused Turbinator II to stall. Rick Vesco of Rockville, which sits in the shadow of Zion National Park, built Turbinator II and it became the first wheel-driven vehicle to exceed 500 miles per hour last year. That resulted in two courses that were basically for rookies and one four-mile course that drivers of elite cars such as Poteet and Dave Spangler of Turbinator II use in record attempts. ![]() Organizers were forced to eliminate one course this year. “When we had rain Thursday night, it delayed the meet three days. “The course is very wet,” said SCTA media liaison JoAnn Carlson. Speed Week was supposed to begin Saturday but a rainstorm that hit early last week cancelled the first three days of racing and had event organizers from the Southern California Timing Association scrambling to lay a safe course for the 71st annual event. ![]()
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