N49 Land Speed Racing Club

August 14 2004 Saturday morning gets underway with more work in the pit. This time we’re setting 1149 up for a rookie run. Dianne and I flipped a coin and the first run will be mine! I’ll spend the rest of the morning on pin and needles as my first FAST trip down the salt approaches. Getting 1149 ready involves installing the booster seat. The truck is built to fit Ted and at over 6 feet and a couple hundred pounds the fit means that my 5’7” 170 lbs will need a boost to see where I’m going. The booster lifts the seat about 3 inches and really makes the truck comfortable for me, Dianne and dad. We also will put in a 6000 rpm rev limit chip, and set up our data system and camera equipment for our first attempt at “logging” a run. This shot shows 1149 with the left side skin removed, revealing a serious chassis, the fire bottles, ignition system and data acquisition units (the two boxes mounted above the cage).

August 14 2004 At 11:00 we all head to the start line for the drivers meeting, it’s a huge meeting of drivers and crew for the 340 vehicles that’ll be running this week. There’ll be the usual event management stuff, some trophy presentation, the prayer and the national anthem. Then we drive the courses to check their condition. The rookies will attend a rookie orientation at the top of the short course. Once that is complete the pits open and racing begins.

August 14 2004 I was really wound up while in staging and waiting for our (my first!) turn on the course I wandered up to the start and watched other cars get ready to go. One that caught my eye was 1931 a sweet little Model A coupe running a vintage four cylinder engine. I have a B engine in my garage and would love to someday do a vintage four build up. Driver Pete Richardson was about to qualify his V4 (vintage four cylinder)/VGC (Vintage Gas Coupe) with a blistering 94.088 mph pass, that’s smokin’ in a basically stock Model A!

August 14 2004 After that I was put to work, I would be driving, but I also had to make sure the other crew members were familiar with the data system I’d put together. Here Bryan Long and I are loading the collection program into the system, I was cooking wearing the pants from the fire suit.

Mike's First Run

My first run was for a “D” license, I was required to keep 1149 under 150 MPH, the guys, we have no speedo, so we calculated rpm and it was determined that I shouldn’t exceed 4500 in third gear.
1149 runs a Turbo 350 transmission with a 900 stall converter, my biggest source of nerves for this run was making sure I didn’t let the tall geared car bog too much when I put it into low and left the line. Dad and Ted coached me steadily as be moved up through staging. I got into the car and checked and double checked the shifter location, how it felt to pull it into low and rehearsed the 1-2 and 2-3 shift. When we were within a couple cars from the start I was fully suited and strapped into the car. Ted strapped me in and talked me through the operation a couple more times. I was sure I could operate 1149 in my sleep by the time our turn at the course came.

The starter, Bill Taylor, came over and signed the rookie sticker on my helmet, he checks that I’m properly secured in 1149 and that the safety systems are ready to use (fire bottle pins out, parachute pin out). He reminded me to stay safe, not to go faster than I felt comfortable, his primary message “be safe, enjoy the ride”.

Once the car running ahead of me had gone out of site I fired 1149 to warm the engine. I had to keep the rpm up about 2500 to keep the engine from loading up. All the while I’m watching Bill Taylor who is in contact with the timing tower and monitoring the progress of the car ahead of me. Bill won’t release the course to me until the previous car has safely left the course.

I can see Bill talking into his microphone, he’s telling the tower that the next car is 1149 and that the driver is a rookie, the tower pays special attention to rookies. Then Bill looks at me, motions to me to close my visor, I do. He then motions that the course is mine.

I let the rpm drop to 1000 and pull the shifter into low, and then get back into the accelerator to keep 1149 alive and get underway. The guys had suggested I keep to the left of the course, but I find myself comfortably in the center and stay put. I quickly glance over the gauges to see that they’re normal and I accelerate down the course. The shift light come on, I’m at 6000 already! That was fast. I bump the shifter to second and feel 1149 squirm as if driving through a snowbank. COOL! The rev are coming up as fast in second as they did in low, I am only aware of my little world inside 1149, the wind is setting my helmet into the roll cage and whistling by my head, the car sound great the world shakes a bit with the vibration from the track. There’s the shift light again, I ease up as I squeeze the shifter and push it into 3rd. I don’t want to shift hard this time because I don’t want to overshoot my 150 mark. I’ve only just passed the one mile mark and the 2 is coming up fast. I’ve reached my recommended rpm and have to ease up more and hold my speed for the next mile and a bit. As I go through the time mile I check the gauges, and enjoy the ride. It feels good, I feel as if I could wave at the pits the car is handling so smoothly. It’s pretty obvious to me that I haven’t even begun to see what 1149 is capable of, but I’m traveling faster than I ever have on the ground before.
I pass through the 3 mile marks and my trip is almost over, I bump to the shifter to neutral and coast to the four mile make where I’ll make my turn to the return road. As I leave the course I see my mom’s car sitting on the return road waiting. I rolled out to a stop a short distance from their location bring 1149 to a stop. I really don’t want this trip to end! I undo the belts and stand up in the car while I remove my wrist restraints, gloves and helmet. It’s been a Fantastic ride!

That’s the nose of Mom’s mustang in the foreground, she had my daughter along with my nieces aboard. I sure wish Susan could have been there.

After my run Saturday we put 1149 into the pre stage line so that it would be ready for Dianne Allan to do her D license pass in the morning.