Drags, Dry Lakes, & Bonneville

The first car that Tom built to race was a 1941 Plymouth coupe with a Chrysler flat head six cylinder engine. This project, lasted a few months, and was fun, but still not a real race car. With the acquisition of a 1934 Dodge pickup, which eventually received a 300 cubic inch Desoto V-8, true competition began. Originally this vehicle was driven daily and doubled as a Sunday racer. As time passed it was retired from the street and became a serious race car. It ran in the C Gas Coupe/Sedan class, and was a serious contender at the various drag strips in Southern California.

Tom joined the Road Runners of Whittier CA, a Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) club in 1956, thereby being introduced to the longer runs at the Dry Lakes. In 1957 Tom made his first trip to the Bonneville Salt Flats and became addicted to the atmosphere and has been a competitor every year since except 1968 & 1969.

Tom ran altered roadsters in both gas and fuel classes from 1959 through 1981. In 1965 he set the record, (which stood until 1969), in D/Gas class at 176.774 MPH. After losing the record in 1969, he chased the new records, but never again achieved success finally reaching a top speed of 199+ MPH with son Dan doing the driving.

A new era of Tom's racing career began in June of 1980. Earlier in the year Dick Schell of Redding had found a 1934 Ford Competition Coupe stored in a barn near Redding and purchased it with the intent of preparing it for Bonneville. He approached Tom to get a copy of Bonneville class rules, which Tom supplied, along with the offer to assist him in the project. After a few months, Dick grew weary of the project and approached Tom, asking him if he knew anyone who might want to purchase the car. It didn't take long for Tom to decide that he had to have the car. Although he didn't know it at the time, he had purchased the "Pierson Coupe" one of the most famous Dry Lakes and Bonneville cars.

Tom ran the coupe at the 1980 meet and continued to compete with this car through the 1991 season. The car was powered by a 304 cubic inch small block Chevrolet engine and competed in both gas and fuel classes eventually setting records in both classes. The fastest one-way run on gasoline was 208 MPH, with a 206.409 MPH two-way average (1991). On fuel (alcohol and nitrous) the best one-way mile speed was 225 MPH, with a 221.898 MPH average (1990) which still stands (as of 1997).

The car was delivered to Bruce Meyer, a collector of Classic and Competition cars and motorcycles, for restoration in January 1992. The restored coupe was unveiled in November 1992 at Bruce's home in Beverly Hills where he has a mini-automotive museum. It can be now be seen at the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles when it is not on the circuit of shows across the nation.

Returning home from delivering the Pierson Coupe to Los Angeles, Tom stopped by Dick William's shop near Watsonville CA and picked up a Poli-Form '34 coupe body which would be used to construct the new car. The new car was to be even more radical than the "Pierson Coupe". A copy of the top chop profile (a 9 "chop) was used on the new car, the wheel base was extended to 156 inches, front wheels covered, and the rear wheel wells deepened to bring the rear wheels flush with the leading edge of the wheel wells. The same engine was employed, as well as the Powerglide transmission used in the previous car, and a Halibrand Championship Quick-Change with a 4:11-1 gear ratio was installed.

The car is still in the construction process and has been very successful to this point. It holds the Dry Lakes D/Fuel record at 211.085 MPH, Bonneville D/Gas record at 216.482 MPH, and the Muroc Dry Lake D/Fuel record at 219.819 MPH. At the 1997 Bonneville Speed Week this car will attempting to raise the D/Fuel record set with the Pierson Coupe in 1990.

Tom is a member of the Bonneville 200 MPH Club, The El Mirage 200 MPH Club (Dirty 2 Club), and a Charter Member of the Muroc Dry Lakes 200 MPH Club. This year at Muroc his son Jeff entered the Muroc 200 MPH Club and will be trying for the Bonneville 200 MPH Club at Bonneville Speed Week in August.

Since our mission for 1997 was to gain entry into the Bonneville 200 MPH Club for Jeff, 1997 has been a somewhat frustrating year for the Bryant Racing Team. Three trips to the salt flats have resulted in three spins at speeds in excess of 215 MPH, the last one resulting in a crash which did major damage to the car. Fortunately the safety equipment worked as designed and protected Jeff from injury. We are now in the process of tearing down and rebuilding the car with a target date for our next run in April at Muroc. Because our El Mirage gasoline record of 191.090 MPH was raised to 195.850 MPH by the San Diego racing team of Tucker, Eyres & Simonis, we will be running the gasoline class at El Mirage to try to regain the record, and at Muroc, as well.

This is an on-going story which will be updated periodically. Any questions or comments will reach us at info@bryantauto.com, saltracer@awwwsome.com, or phone (530) 222-3313 fax (530) 221-5633.

UPDATES:

In 1997, we lost both the D/GCC and D/FCC records at Bonneville to John Beckett (226.527 MPH & 226.470 respectively.) in 1998 and he raised the gas record again at the World of Speed  to 228.667 MPH. We were able to regained the D/FCC record (234.393 MPH) at the World Finals 1999, giving Jeff entry into the Bonneville 200 MPH Club. We also got the El Mirage gas record back in November, 2000 at 198.494 MPH, just short of the needed speed to give Jeff membership in the "Dirty Two" Club.

Our goal now is to recover the D/GCC record at Bonneville and set the record at Muroc, if we are fortunate enough to run there again. The 2001 Muroc meet was canceled do to a breakdown in negotiations with the Air Force. And get Jeff in "Dirty Two" Club by tweaking the  El Mirage D/GCC record over 200 MPH.

At Speedweek 2002, we were successful! First, Barry regained the D/GCC @ 228.843 MPH, gaining entry into the 200 MPH Club. Then a couple of days later, my brother Gary ran a 230.085 MPH run that qualified the car again, the next morning he made the backup run @ 229.390 for an average of  229.737 MPH. Another record and Gary is in the 200 MPH Club also.

In November, we made our trip to El Mirage Dry Lake for another shot at a record over 200 MPH  to get Jeff into the "Dirty 2" Club. We were again successful with a 206.792 MPH Record. This gave us control of the records in both gas and fuel classes at Bonneville and El Mirage. We also hold the fuel record at Muroc and if we are able to hold meets there in the future, we will be chasing that gas class record.

The year 2002 will long be remembered by the Bryant Racing Team. Speedweek gave us two D/GCC records and two more family members in the Bonneville 200 MPH Club. In September. I was honored by being placed into the Dry Lakes Racing Hall of Fame and in November, Jeff received his entry into the El Mirage 200 MPH Club. I don't expect to 2003 to measure up to this past season , but it would be good to raise the D/GCC record yet again and get my son Dan into the Bonneville 200 MPH Club. This would give the Bryant family five members in the Bonneville 200 MPH Club. A worthy goal, I believe.

2003 is shaping up to be another banner year. We started our season with a trip to El Mirage in May to give Barry some seat time in the dirt. Our plan is to give him the opportunity to go for the "Dirty 2" Club in November. His rookie run speed was a bit disappointing, but he had a lot of unanswered questions on his mind . Traction tends to be a bit more of a problem in the dirt, because of the lower gearing and the course tends to get torn up after several cars make their passes. At the top of second gear, the car got a little loose and wagged its tail. Barry lifted and never real got back on the throttle for the rest of the run. His first, and only run down the course at the May Meet was 122+ mph. We had the opportunity to return to El Mirage in July and Barry felt some what more comfortable in the car. His first pass was 191+ mph which is respectable. His second run was a bit slower @ 188 mph because he put it in gear too soon causing the engine to blubber for a couple of hundred yards, enough to eat up precious accelerating time. I believe these two trips have given him some confidence that could translate to success in November.

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Last Updated: 09/09/2010