Below is a link we had sent to us of a NHRA video of photos from Speedweek 2016. Of all the stuff that’s at Bonneville to take a picture of it’s pretty neat that we landed in the photographer’s top ten. 

http://www.nhra.com/story/2016/9/7/top-ten-bonneville-photos-with-nhra-photographer-marc-gewertz/

Today proved to be long and tiring even though racing doesn’t start until tomorrow. Set up continued with the addition of the newly constructed flat canopy. 

The last time we were here we had regular canopies with peaks and learned quickly why they aren’t the best. A wind stormed  arose and we didn’t know to remove the canopies. We all grabbed a pole and held on as tight as we could for quite some time. That was enough of a lesson for an engineer not to come back with that same equipment. We will remove the tarp each night like most pits do but can leave the frame in place. Which is a good thing because that’s not an easy up for sure! Not that I helped put it up but it did take them a while.

Another change this year is the towing of the car upon finishing a run. We had flat towed it behind the truck before but someone has to sit in it and it’s very slow that way. This year we added this trailer which the car will get towed around on instead. The canopy was added after we got here and will aid in keeping the car cool after each run. 

We got water for the radiator and racing fuel for in the tank. Which, at $15.00 a gallon, was the cheapest they were selling! I’m told it doesn’t have any ethanol in it and is very specialized in many other ways which I know nothing about so I won’t even pretend to try to explain it. 

The car did get started and seemed to run good. I think she’s just ready to stretch her legs again since she’s been couped up for so long.​ She sounds good!

​There is a driver meeting tomorrow morning at 9:00 and then racing will begin. As suspected, there are a lot of cars and motorcycles here so we are anticipating long lines and possibly only one run tomorrow. 

The weather is pretty warm, low to mid nineties but without any humidity which is something we aren’t used to. It’s not bad if you stay in the shade, that’s why you see so many big hats. People make their own shade. The sun is hot on your direct skin so a lot of people just wear pants and long sleeves. It just depends what you can put up with.

Sad to say I didn’t really get a great quote today since I was mostly watching a toddler. I was told that when they were assembling the canopy, there are different colored marks on them so they could match them up easily and Cale said in reference to them that,”We got them out of different spray cans!” Really???

Poor salt conditions has forced the SCTA to cancel Speedweek this year. 

Check back for updates as we are attempting to plan an alternate trip to either Maine or Ohio for some racing.  Both of these events are held on airport runways which are much shorter than the salt flats but will be good for testing.

Stay tuned.