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BRYANT FAMILY RACING

Jeff and I arrived on the lake bed just in time to get the car off the trailer before dark on Friday. We returned to Super "8" Motel in Palmdale for the night anticipating great things on Saturday. We arrived back on the lake bed about 8 AM Saturday morning, warmed up the engine and put the car in line. At the Lakes cars are put in line according to points earn for the season, since we had not run previously this year, we were at the rear section of the line. Being in the 200 MPH line helps us since there are fewer cars in this category.

Saturday was a beautiful day with no wind, (unusual after 10 AM), so each run consumed considerable time allowing for the dust to clear between runs. We final got to the starting line about 1 PM. The car fired and sounded good, we pushed off the line, Jeff dropped it in gear and it started pulling away and then the engine began to misfire resulting in a turn-out. After returning to the pits and making the usual inspections, we found the plugs had gas fouled. We replaced the plugs, and since it was too late to hope for another run on Saturday, we return to Palmdale for the night.

Sunday found us on the lake bed again at 8 AM hoping for a good run. Again the dust was not clearing the course as well as we would have liked, but we did manage to get to the starting line by about noon. This run was a little better, at least we were able to go through the clocks. It was still not the performance we had hoped for, 172.80 MPH. The engine was still taking too long to clean out and start running. Jeff said it was pulling good once it cleaned, but too much distance had been covered before it started to run.

We leaned the air/fuel mixture for the next run and put it back in line. We got our second run on Sunday at about 3 PM. Unfortunately, we still had problems and had to turn out. It seemed that the ignition was falling down. (Inspection after arriving home verified that the coil had been arcing to ground because of a bad seal at the coil tower boot.)

This year is history, but there is always NEXT YEAR! We are building a new engine, same class with the newer 18 degree cylinder heads. Big horsepower gains are promised. So next year will be the year for Jeff to get our records back. We always aim high, but win, lose, or draw, we have fun.

Until next year, Have a Happy Holiday Season.

This did give us some time to do further preparation to the race car, which, as it turned out, was good for us. We found that we had a serious water leak into the oil. A cracked cylinder head! At noon Thursday the officials open the course for tune up runs through the 2 1/4 traps, but, we were busy trying to correct our water problem. After a trip to town for epoxy, we fixed the head, changed the oil and now we had a serious contender, but, not in time to run Thursday. Friday we went to the salt to find ourselves plagued by wind, which was not all bad, because the wind can help to dry the racing surface, if it bows the right direction, if not it can bring more water across the race course.

It was blowing the right direction. By 12:30 PM on Friday cars were allowed to run the first two miles. A 132' speed trap was set up at the end inside the two miles. We put the car in line for a tune up run. The first run netted us a 187.50 MPH run which was fair, but I felt that we could improve by leaning the motor a little. The next run Jeff ran 194 + which on a normal course, would be a quarter mile time between 200 and 205 MPH (our best to date, in the 1/4, has been 201+).  The engine was still a little rich, but,  were happy with the results and hoped to be able to run a full course on Saturday. That was not to be, we had serious rain Friday night. Saturday morning we went to the pits and load up our equipment while wading around in 2 inches of water. We headed back home with the hopes of returning to the World Finals the 14th through 17th of October.

We got the car inspected, as it turned out under the watchful eye of a media team who wanted an inspection process on camera. We breezed through inspection with no faults, returned the car to the pits and went to town to clean up and relax. Saturday morning we returned to the salt to set up our shade canopy,  prepare the car and attend the driver's meeting. After the meeting we joined many other competitors for a short tour down the race course in our push trucks to get a look at the condition of the surface. The salt was very good this year, do to the pumping of brine that began this year, I suppose.  Reilly Chemical, who mines potash from the salt flats has begun a pumping process to return millions of tons of salt that they have removed over the years. This is supposed to add about 1/2 inch of salt over a 26 square mile area each year.

In the afternoon we returned to Wendover to pick up Jeff and his son Gabe who had flown in from Red Bluff. Time now to get serious! Sunday I made three runs. The first was 172.205 MPH in the first mile, not good, the next  I turned out after going through low gear, the next was 185 in the first mile, obviously something is not right. We spent Monday replacing the intake manifold gasket which was leaking and making a check of all our systems. Jeff then took his first ride since the crash last October, a part throttle ride, 184.50 MPH in the first mile, the car was still was not running right in the upper RPMs. Jeff's second run netted a 194 in the middle mile and a cockpit full of smoke. Detonated three pistons, so we are done for this meet.

I am not sure yet what our performance problems are. I suspect the change in the air induction system has some problems. We are repairing the motor and building a new fuel injector air box for the "World of Speed"  September 23-26 with plans to regain our fuel class record which we lost to John Beckett of South Carolina  at 226.470 MPH. John also raised our gas record to 226.527 MPH, we plan to work on that at the "World Finals" in October.

Even though we had our problems, Speedweek was a great meet. There were roughly 350 car entries plus several bikes. There were a few spins, as usual, one car Streamliner (9898 H/BFS Bickford Racing, driver Jim Bickford) and a Motorcycle Streamliner (1500/S-BG Project Goldwing, rider Kenny Lyon) crashed. Both drivers are OK, Jim was hospitalized a couple of days for observation, but was walking around in the pits on Wednesday.  Al Teague had top time of the meet for a piston engine car with a run in excess of 368 MPH setting a new record at 366.043 in "C" Streamliner, Vesco's Turbine powered Streamliner had the fastest time of the meet with a 390+ run, Burkland's new two-engine Streamliner went 361 in the middle mile with traction problems. The next run they broke the front transfer unit and retired for the meet. After crashing two years in a row, George Fields returned this year with a rebuilt and redesigned Competition Coupe. His work netted a A/FCC record of 264.667 MPH. Lots of other teams did well. The results of the meet are on line at scta-bni.org.

We do have a race car that is functional! Many hours have been spent in rebuilding after our accident in October, a few changes/improvements have been made, and hopefully by Speed Week the 15th - 21st of August, we will have a presentable car as well.

We entered the car in D/Gas Competition Coupe class and made our first test run, on Saturday June 27 at Muroc. The added skirting, (intended to give a low pressure area under the car) works. Actually its a vacuum cleaner!! The car immediately filled with dust and the run had to be aborted. Top speed was about 140 with a coast through the clocks at 92 MPH. Back to the pits and removed the skirting!

Sunday morning we worked with silicone and duct tape to plug all the holes we could find in the underside and rear firewall of the car. Made a second run about 11 AM, still dirty inside the car, but I could see enough to continue down the course. About 100 to 200 yards before the clocks the rear of the car set to the right at about 30 degrees to the course, (hit a soft spot in the course I guess) I backed off the throttle, decelerated against compression, and let it go where it wanted, which was off the course just past the clocks. I received a time of 178+ and a damaged nose of the car. Hit some cones as I left the course. (I'm certain we were running in excess of 200 MPH when it got out of shape.) I admit that it scared me. After the accident we had in October and the tragedy Saturday, my confidence was a bit shaken.

Early Saturday we had a mishap with a lakester that resulted in the death of Bruce Johnston, a long-time competitor at the Lakes and at Bonneville. The racing surface was not as good as normal, breaking up rather quickly causing traction problems for the faster cars.

We are in the process of repairing the damaged received at Muroc and finishing the body work so we can get a coat of paint on the car before Bonneville. This is the 50th year since Speed Week began in 1949. Should be quite a week on the Salt with many of those that ran in 1949 in attendance. A good time to make the trek to Salt whether or not you have been there before.

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Last Updated: 09/09/2010