Event Coverage Bonneville Speedweek 2025

Much respect to Mr. Chris Raschke.

 

One more thing about B***. He had the honor of carrying the ashes of Gene Winfield for one last ride on the salt. I think it might’ve been the run where he spun out at about 180 so Gene got a wild ride.

 

Several cars carried some of Gene's ashes on a p***.
Pretty much in the way that we gave one of my boating mentors a send of at Port Townsend Wa in 2008. At his daughter's request those with black powder canons and that number was 12 put a small packet of his ashes in each canon and fired them off at 12 Noon.


Gene loved land speed racing at any level and having his ashes spread on the salt is fitting.

 

Just asking Never seen / been to land speed in person ,
When these Cars spin out , How do they Not Dig In & Tumble ?
Or these the Lucky one's that just
Spin & Slide !! ??

 

The God's of Speed determine that..
But a Key thing most don't realize, These cars are built Very heavy, An have that weight as low as possible..
An a **** load of Luck goes a long way

 

Thank you ,
Is there a weight minimum / requirement per cl***
Or Up to Racer / Builder ,
Let say B*** car Weight Minimum
Like 3,500 plus ?
Or Weight determined by Speed Mark Minimum shooting for ?

 

Someone will chime in...

 

My limited understanding is that cl***es are engine type and size (and fuel) paired with body.
Unlike almost any other racing, weight does not factor into it for the rules or running (no gain for 100 pounds less).
Weight helps with traction and stability plus strength.

This shows cl***es, the only mention of weight is electric/turbine
https://bonnevilleracing.com/vehicle-data-codes-cars/

 

There is no weight minimum or maximum for all the cl***es out there, with the exception of the prior mentioned electric turbine things. Each racer determines how much weight he needs to gain the traction that he wants. Traction is a major problem out there. Sometimes it’s like driving on hard packed snow. Roadsters have the aerodynamics of a brick, so if it spins sideways, it will probably slide. Door slammers will sometimes fly, like in nascar. They run high tire air pressure to reduce the tendency for the tires to roll off the rim. It’s a combination of slick surface, low center of gravity, poor aerodynamics and hard tires that luckily have most roadsters do a flat spin instead of a tumble. Exceptions apply. The 911 roadster tumbled this year. I’m not proud of it, but I’ve spun a roadster a few times in the 180-200 mph range. I was fortunate each was a flat spin.

 

One thing is that the tires don't normally have a lot of tread or sharp endges on them that dig in.

 

And if they come with them like some Vintage Dunlops…..you sand/grind them off.

 

All true, my brother's OT 90 T-bird weighed 6200, he still got some serious air a couple times, but landed on all 4's.