48 Land Speed Records Tumble at Bonneville World Finals
October 2020 • By Tony Thacker, photos by Nestor Cabrera, Dan Kaplan & Tony Thacker
Presented by BUA Motorsport, Rat Trap Racing & USAutomotiveNobody said it was easy. If it was we’d all have a red hat and we don’t. Despite 48 land speed records falling like coconuts at the recent Bonneville World Finals, for every success story there was an equivalent tale of woe. Bonneville is a tough place to race as racer Donny Cummins summed it up, “It’s humbling.”
In fact, Donny was due to go and work on the 300mph 911 Roadster but tested positive and even though he eventually cleared he felt he couldn’t go. Another racer trapped by the pandemic was Brit Geoff Stilwell who couldn’t even fly to the US to race.
As for the Cummins-Beck-Davidson-Thornsberry 911 Roadster, owner/driver Dave Davidson put down a blistering 300.297 mph run on Tuesday and broke the existing AA/BFR record by almost 20 mph. Unfortunately, the next morning a transmission issue sidelined them for the rest of the week.
Then there’s the story of Jerry Kugel who set the E/BFR record in 1979 at 245.804. Jerry’s dream was to break his own record 40 years later at age 80. Unfortunately, in 2019, the salt was washed out. Jerry and his sons Joe and Jeff came back in August 2020 but had some overheating issues. The problem persisted in October; meanwhile, the Waters, Manghelli & Romero White Goose Bar Roadster took the Gas record bumping it to 253.466mph. Unfortunately, they then suffered a devastating engine fire. Thankfully driver Keith Pedersen was unhurt thatnks to Keith quick reactions and those of the SCTA officials and fire and rescue who put the fire out quickly.
Kugel’s Roadster is powered by a turbocharged small-block Chevy that produces around 1,000 hp, more or less the same engine he set the record with in 1979, the Waters, Manghelli & Romero Roadster is powered by a Toyota 2JZ-GTE dohc twin-turbo straight six. I’m not saying that the Chevy is inferior to the Toyota but there’s 40 years of development in that straight-six and we’ll no doubt see more of that as the chase for records continues.
A success story came out of the Jesel-Goldtsrum camp where Chris Raschke became the 8th driver to get into the Bonneville 200 MPH Club with a speed of 241.165. They planned for Steve Watt to get his red hat too but it was not to be.
Top speed of the meet was 348.121 mph set by Alan Fogliadini driving the Dannenfelzer, Richards, Madsen & Tony Waters D/BFL—D indicating an engine less than 305.99 ci.
If that isn’t amazing then what about the blown flathead Ford V-8 of Mariani Farms. With Ted Carlton behind the wheel they bumped the existing record by 30 mph to 210.869 mph. That’s pretty fast for a flathead.
On the first day of racing, 27 records were broken but only about 50-percent of those were backed up. And so the week went on with records being broken but half of them not being backed up as the great white dyno took its toll on equipment. According to the SCTA 103 vehicles registered (65 Cars & 41 Motorcycles), there were 391 Runs and 48 Certified Records were set.
Designer Larry Erickson debuted his new Roadster with Dennis Kelso driving. Photo Dan Kaplan
Without a doubt one of the best stories from the World Finals is that of Larry Erickson. Larry, well known for designing CadZZilla, the Aluma Coupe and even the 2005 Mustang, has been nurturing a Bonneville dream since he first put pencil to paper and has been building that dream for 10 years. The car is a stunning Model A-based Roadster that graced the cover of The Rodder’s Journal #81.
Assembled by Larry and a long list of friends including high school buddy Dennis Kelso and his son Chris, the car made it to the salt—just. They arrived in SLC from Detroit on Tuesday, thrashed all that night, all Wednesday and finally got to the salt midday Thursday. Just in time to tech and fix the short list of things to well, fix. Friday, Dennis managed one run only to encounter a suspension problem that put them back on the trailer. But no worries, a goal was achieved Larry saying, “You have no idea of the complexity of turning a sketch into a land speed racer but you just get on ticking off items one by one until you feel that crunch of salt. It was amazing to watch Dennis take it down the course and get his rookie license. Just to get here is more than most people ever achieve and I can’t thank everybody who had a hand in this enough for their help. We’ll be back….”
For more information about future land speed events visit: SCTA-BNI.org
