Saturday, November 6, 2010

Kevin Wheels Maggies Motorhome


The motor home was graciously loaned to the team to tow the car again this year, Thank you Maggie.
This rig is very long and bordering on overloaded and the additional length of chassis beyond the rear axle makes for very intense moments for the teamster and the crew are white knuckled every few minutes by the swaying of the rig. When Dean decided to remain at home to spend time with his ailing mother, our intrepid (x transport owner/driver), Kevin Knox stood in for Dean and after a brief round the block familiarization run we departed for the salt flats. Kevin did a yeoman's job of herding the beast through one province and four states over several mountain passes, without incidence, but it was very stressful and we vowed to get a proper tow vehicle.
We left Wednesday morning, Werner followed in his Blue Dodge 4x4 looking very pretty as it headed off to service the pits and push the Goldenhawk. Chris, Werner and Cheryl's son, at first was not going to come but after we drove away he had second thoughts so about noon he took off after us in the his Viper powered black pickup. he must have really been haulin' ass for he caught us away before dark somewhere in Idaho.




We arrived at the Salt Flats for Speedweek 2010 on Friday morning The crew was quick to set up the pits and unload the car. We spend more of the rest of the day preparing for the tech inspection as we knew it would be moved up a notch by the tragic death of Barry Bryant last year. This was very every true and it is good to see that his life has contributed to the safety of others that race today.
We towed the car down to tech on Saturday morning and waited all day in the line up. Inspections were thorough and therefore took more time. It was reported that every volunteer inspector was working steady all day and it was rumoured that some of the cars that had ran for many year were being being rejected for as many as 60 infractions. Thank goodness we had our tough inspection last year so we were very prepared. The day ended and we left the Hawk in line for inspection Sunday morning.
We had to retest our bailout procedures with the (new) Hans device which was a good thing, because it caused a change in the driver exit movements from a tight cockpit. Of special note: Our Tech inspector was Jeff Bryant, a very dedicated person, experienced in landspeed racing for many years with his Father Sonny and his late brother Barry. Our hats are off to this man!

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