Saturday 8 August 5 days in**************

Early morning at the Bend in the road and as you can see the racers have gone to work/play/race.

The bar is empty!

A few rods, like iron steeds, are still awaiting the sleepy ones.

Bar at the Bend has Babes

Anne can watch the kids play and enjoy the company of some new friends from Chicago. A retired school autoshop teacher is the one responsible for bringing the bar and palm trees etc. It was his first trip and he says he will be back every year. I want to camp near him.

The bar closes early as everyone has to head out on the salt early, but it is still fun!

Life at the Bend in the Road

It is quiet time in the Tofini camp, but Tom is suffering from a bad tooth problem.






Then he finds the Tiki Bar and a remedy.Yes tequila is good for more than breakfast juice!

Yuri also samples the CURE.

Collision plus team arrives

Frank and Attilla Vaski arrive along with their friend Frank and begin to install the cameras in the tail and also prepare to put the leading edge on the vertical stabilizer. In this picture it looks like I am begging Frank to Put on his GOLDENHAWK SPONSOR? SALT TEAM shirt.

It never hurts to grovel a bit to sponsors! Tom & Jamie and Dan were installing the nitrous bypass tubes that Ed had brought.

Day 5 Working the pit of the Goldenhawk

The pits are a busy place today. Everyone is pitching, Anne is sweeping out the salt and Alex spells her off. Jamie, Art, Dan,Dean, Werner, Bryson are all performing different tasks simultaneously and without a complaint. Once in a while Steve Green comes to our pits to check on things and see if we need help,parts or advice. Sometimes not sometimes we need it all, thanks for the support from Eagle machine and the Original Fast Guys ll.

Steve brought us the new 1" wheel nuts decals and water for the tank. Ed Shadle famous racer and owner/developer/driver of the jet,North American Eagle brought us the NX Nitrous tubes that had been same day delivered to his home in Washington state, so that we could meet a certain safety rule. Jason (the younger Tofini) is waiting his turn to "do something" however he is not feeling very well and needs to rest a bit, but that is boring when everyone is doing something!

Anne becomes respectfully known as PIT MUM

North American Eagle crew help with chute.

The safety team from the North American Eagle jet car, will be attempting 800mph soon, but they take the time to show Dan, Werner and Art how to do it right! Thanks for the education, it is always good to get instruction from the best. Thanks for the help!

Another well known visitor, hot rod/race car designer Troy Trepanier (http://www.radrides.com/home.php) poses with Werner, Jamie, Dan and Bryson.

Calvin Dirks and Dave Green get ready to shake down their new Lakester, they are also from BC. Calvin is from Chilliwack and Dave as you may know is from the original Fast Guys and lives in the interior of BC.

Famous Author "Landspeed Louise" visits!

The team's favorite automotive author and mentor, Louise Ann Noeth paid us a surprise visit. Obviously, everyone stopped work and requested her to autograph their copies of BONNEVILLE SALT FLATS, a super coffee table book with fantastic photos and stories. One everyone that loves the sport has or should have!! Check out her website to order the book and also to find out what really goes on in the world of fast!!http://www.landspeedproductions.biz/

Dean and Bryson were hard at it until LSL showed up!

Jim Deist Remembered and Honoured

A visit of special meaning

Picture tell 10,000 words.

Jim, we miss you on the Salt.

Performing the tasks at hand.

Werner and Chris Sprenger from Vancouver, have arrived after driving all night just Like Dan Nayoski and his son Jamie (from Calgary Alberta). As the pictures show everyone is engaged in the last minute things that need to get done, things we ran out of time to do back in Canada. At this time Yuri and Dan are working on the main electric line and Tom is about to saw something off? Alex Tofini our newest crew person is assisting Tom and me in the cockpit. Good Gofers are hard to find so Alex and his brother Jason are put to work as needed. Thanks guys! Art Crompton, about this time is expediting the cold drinks and food from Wendover. Dean is attempting to organise the chaos and keep the tools picked up and the area salt free.

Media arrives at Goldenhawk

We did not expect to attract attention as we are relatively unknown so we were flattered and surprised when the film crews showed up. There were about four in all. Some from USA, England, Canada and even Iran. They wanted to ask about the Bonneville action from a veteran, so I quickly dragged Steve Green from Eagle machine in Abbotsford, BC. tech inspector and racer with the original Fast Guys, into the interview because he had been there 30 years on the salt!

Day 4 Setup Pits and Unload Goldenhawk

We arrived on the salt around 9:30 am after a good rest and great and hot breakfast at the SALT FLATS CAFE' . Yuri Tofini (Aggressive Tube Bending owner) and his family arrived soon after and Anne took photos of the car, the kids, and Tom Boos, who also travelled with them to help out as Salt Crew. I am sure no one at this time would have guessed at how much work would be needed!

What happened at Bonneville?

May's motor home performed flawlessly and except for being rather thirsty it was quite comfortable. Dean found that the trailer scaled at 10,000 lbs. and 20,000 total weight spread over 73 Feet. The combination of long over hang on the chassis made it quite a chore to drive as he always had to be on top of the wheel especially in the wind gusts.

After 30 hours on the road, including a slumber stop at Twin Falls Idaho, Dean towed the Hawk into Wendover, Nevada where we were met by Wendover Will and by gale force (gusts to 70mph) winds and out on the salt, the visibility was restricted by blowing salt. It looks very much like a Prairie blizzard!

Dean used to own a transport company and is very experienced in towing a "73 Ft" rig but not quite like this one. GOOD JOB !Mr.Culchesky

Glad to be here!!! ON the salt.

HAPPY TO BE HERE!

Thanks to all the people that made it all possible, from Aggressive Tube, Apex refinishers and all the sponsors / crew and especially Dr. Glenn Dyck for the trailer and Maggie for the tow vehicle.

Day 3 Arriving at the Salt Flats

6 August 2009 Wendover, Nevada and Utah.

Dean is thrilled to see the end of the trip as we see the Wendover sign and head for food before going passed the Statue of Wendover Will. As you can see in the photos when we got to the salt there was a 50 -60 miles an hour wind blowing. It was like being in a winter blizzard from the Canadian prairies.

We were met by Linda,er daughters and friends who welcomed us with big hugs. Praxair from SALT LAKE CITY had delivered the nitrous oxide bottles to lands end, thank you for the service it was a great help folks. We were also met by Roger and Marlene Manson from Burnaby, BC as they were returning from the pits after dropping their racecar trailer. We had a chat about the trip and said we would see them in town as they were at the KOA. Then along came Steve Green of Eagle Machine in Abbotsford BC. Steve and his brother Dave are technical inspectors and have been coming to Bonneville with their cousin Eric for 30+ years and are well known for the records they hold as the "Original Fast Guys" 258mph Vega. Steve had been in contact with us all day yesterday by cell phone as he traveled to the salt. He was very helpful in getting us, much needed parts and even arranging for decals with our number to put on the tail. Steve escorted us to our pits and with stinging salt blasting us, we unhooked the trailer and headed back to Wendover to get supplies.( A good idea at Bonneville is to have a very coarse mat to help keep the salt out of the pits and especially the vehicles like motor home). All the time Art Crompton is right with us helping along the way.

Day 2 "ON THE ROAD"

6:30 AM 5 August 2009
The show is on the road!
Werner and I give thumbs up and Dean begins the 20 hour drive to Wendover. He very wisely spoke to the US Customs folks and we went through the truck lane. This motor home and trailer are about 73 feet long (22.46m) and weigh a total of 20,000 lbs. (9090.90kg). As Dean gets acquainted with the handling quality of the rig, sometimes white knuckling it in the traffic and wind, Art Crompton rides herd in this car to pick up anything that falls off. (fortunately all we lost was one small flag somewhere about Seattle on I 5. Art managed to dodge it but a transport immediately killed it! The day was long and the weather clear. The motor home ( Thank you May B.) was very comfortable to ride in and I was able to relax for the first time in months. Bryson was always checking for opportunity to take a nap. I was very glad Dean is a good driver as I was not in any mental condition to handle the stresses associated with hauling the load safely. The motor home has not a large fuel tank and a big power plant so stops for fuel are frequent. Now let me tell you, Art has his work cut out for him because at each stop we are swarmed by people taking photos asking questions and getting autographs from him and the post cards we gave out increased our publicity across the USA.

We made it to Twin Falls Idaho around 3 AM and Dean was burnt out! We stopped at a rest area, got 5 hours of "Semi sleep" (18 wheel trucks are idling in these areas all night). We washed up, explained to people what it was we had on the trailer, its purpose, destination
and hit the road again, leaving a trail of tourists madly snapping photos and waving goodbye to Art.

Bonneville Adventure Day 1

Tuesday August 4 2009 Surrey BC

Early mornings and late nights were the norm. When Dean, Cody and I picked up the Hawk from NIC BOOS studio the paint barely dry.
Then stopped at TOM THE TIRE GUYS shop for new tires on the motorhome. It was late night when Bryson, Cody, Werner and Chris, finished securing the load of tools and parts on the trailer. The last was done by the lights of my van. Midnight and we still need to pack, clothes and required documents for the trip.

Prologue to Bonneville Speedweek

The trip to Bonneville Salt Flats

and the SCTA/BNI organised speed trials was a Success!

In the beginning, "The Goldenhawk Project" was my idea that a public relations type project might be organised to bring quality people together. An effort on my part to assemble and encourage people that were not racers nor had much knowledge of land speed racing, to not only be involved by lending their unique skills, time, materials and money, but to also experience the power of public relations, and to better understand the origination of "word of mouth advertising". All people can tell you that the best advertising comes from word of mouth, but only a small percentile recognise that it is "third party endorsement " by others that bares the fruits of commerce. Listen closely to your family and friends seek approval of a purchase of product or services and you will hear someone validate that decision, often by including the words " They have a good name or I have heard of that product / company!"

Public relations is very much about attracting media attention and gaining general popularity in the general public on a large scale, perhaps world wide. My humble guess is we have started that process with the Goldenhawk Streamliner. Not the fastest, not the most expensive race vehicle, not the most experienced team, but the most popular and photogenic everywhere it goes!

Sponsors - Builders - Salt team BE PROUD

To the "build team",

We, everyone involved, worked long and hard sacrificing family and personal time , through innumerable set backs, and received and appreciated much unexpected support in time, labour, money, moral support and encouragement over the span of three years.

The (Royal Canadian Air Force's) GOLDEN HAWK spirit is alive and growing steadily in the world today. The Goldenhawk Streamliner soars on wings of the great spirit in all of us. Honesty, respect, charity and love.

I am proud to be a part of an adventure of life, this project.Thank you. Randy