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....................................Changes To the Car for 2006
.....................-- Hooley's 2006 Bonneville Experience --........................A Promising Run -- 2 Steps Backwards
.............................................2 Good Runs and a Record!!!!
......Click (HERE) To order a 2006 Tee-Shirt........
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The 2006 974 crew with Loyd "Hooley" Huffman on the left and then to the right, Sumner Patterson, Sam Woodard, Charlie Gould, Jerry Pace, Mark Maupin, Frank Kocinski, Scot Darling, Keenan Willbanks, Ken Tindall, Gerald Chrisman, Patrick Melson, Benny Rhoads, John Kimbrough, Jim Rivers and George Hakes.
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2006 started for the team with about 10 of the team members showing up at my house in Blanding, Utah the Monday night before Speed Week. Tuesday we went out and hiked to a 1000 year old Anasazi ruin on the ledge in the picture (some called it a "forced march"). George and Jim made it out to the very end of the ledge (see arrow) others made it various distances from the Jeep to this point. Wednesday we were suppose to go out again, but we were pretty wore out from the previous day and found things to do on the race car in my shop where there were chairs and liquid refreshments. Thursday we made the 430 mile trip to the salt without incident until we arrived at Motel 6 where one of the spring hangers on the trailer decided to break off. Fabian Valdez & Adam Rogers (hope I have your names right) came along and rescued us with their mig welder.
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Friday morning we set up our pits and took the car to tech inspection, shown here....................
... and that went well with no problems.
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We took the car to Rick Gold's ERC fuel truck and filled up with 110 octane, which is what we used the rest of the meet. We are running blown gas................................
Rick also had a very pleasant surprise for us. He had taken a picture of Hooley's Stude last year and he had it right on the front of this years ERC event T-shirt. Needless to say Hooley and the team bought lots of them!!
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On Saturday morning you can now put your car in the pre-stage line after 7:00 and before drivers meeting. We did that and then hung around until the drivers meeting started at 11:00. As you can see there were a lot of drivers and crew for the meeting with about 500 cars/bikes running in the event.
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After the drivers meeting we drove the course all the way down to the 7 mile marker. It is way down there.
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This is in the line at the starting line after the pre-stage area. As the cars/bikes go down the course they will release a half dozen or so cars from pre-stage over to the starting line area. That way they cut down on congestion in the starting area and have a way to cut off the line at 5 p.m. The purple car in the picture is the Nish Streamliner and it went 380+ for one of the fastest times of the meet...................
When you are about 3 cars back from going down course you have to get into your driving suit and start getting buckled into the car. That is what is going on here..................
After the run we would go to the pits, which were on the return road from the end of the course and the starting line. Our first run was a test and tune run and Hooley just ran to the 3 mile as the EGT (exhaust gas temps) were going up on the dash gauge. He ran a 194 at the 2 1/4 mile trap and had a 191 average in the 3rd mile. He was only running about 30-50% throttle on the run and were were lean according to our data logging (logged: air/fuel, rpm, EGT, boost, throttle position, and acceleration). We changed a spring in the "barrel valve" on the fuel injection to richen the part throttle circuit.
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We went back in line and were able to make a second pass on Saturday. On this pass we decided to try and run more WOT to see what our air/fuel and EGT would do. Well Hooley, according to the throttle position sensor, ran WOT to the tune of 106% throttle in 2nd, 3rd and into 4th until he got into trouble at about the 2 3/4 mile. He spun the tires and the car spun about 90 degrees to the west and then back about 180 degrees to the east, then back to the west where the video cam under the rear spoiler showed the black line coming at the back of the car. Then he went back around and backed off towards the tower. I went out and pushed him to the pits. He and the car were unhurt. He started the spin at 223 mph and spun through the 3 mile lights, missing them.
Back in the pits we had to have the car re-inspected the next morning for damage and had to straighten out the bar the chute pulls on and where I push him as it had gotten bent around about 45 degrees when the car ran over the chute lines in all the spinning. The chute and the new NASCAR type roof flaps (see changes for 2006) did their job and kept the car on the ground.
We also were running a little lean at WOT and made a "pill" change to the Enderle mechanical fuel injection. Over the winter Jerry Pace and John Kimbrough had cut up about 1000 lbs. of steel and Hooley made mounting pockets for the weight, so we decided to add 600 lbs. to the car in addition to the 200 lbs. that had been added over the winter.
It is hard to get a mental picture of what happens at high speed on the salt, but the air becomes a wall that you are pushing against and if it takes more force to push against that wall of air than you have traction you spin the tires. At some point you can't go faster even if you have the HP no matter how you try and peddle the car. The salt was good this year, but more slippery than two years ago. I think the car was up against the wall of air and only more weight would give us the traction we needed.
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After the spin Hooley said "well we got that out of the way", so we got back into line Sunday after having the car inspected. Here we are in pre-stage between the 7777 Salt Shaker (with the nose off) and Earl Wooden's AA Blown Gas Streamliner.
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Sunday's run netted our best average speed ever. A 228 mph average speed for the 4th mile. The EGT was getting high and Hooley shut it off and didn't run through the 5th mile. We were pumped at this point knowing that maybe the 231 mph record might be achievable. We went back to the pits and changed oil and plugs and got back into line the next morning.
Monday the car didn't sound good and was only able to run 210 mph in the 5th mile straining all the way. Back to the pits it was where we finally found out that on the plug change the 1 & 3 plug wires were switched. That shot Monday, but we still had high hopes.
Tuesday there was another "shot to the foot". After a long wait in line (usually 4-6 hours) we fired the car and pushed it off, but again it didn't sound good. About the 2 1/2 the car ran out of gas and Hooley coasted off the course with a 196 mph in the 3rd mile "on empty". Now we were wondering how we could screw things up next and our confidence was on the decline.
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...( This Picture by Craig Beairsto was taken at first light with the car in pre-stage -- Thanks Craig)
We took the car to pre-stage late in the afternoon and were still in pre-stage when they closed things down for the night.
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Wednesday things finally went right!!! Hooley ran down the course in the relatively cool morning air at 10:30 am. The car took a couple seconds to clean out once he left me in the push truck, but then he got with it and drove the car hard. He was rewarded with a 228.203 in the 4th mile. A 234.102 in the 5th mile with a 236.635 exit speed. Since the 5th mile was over the current record we qualified to make a return run the next morning. We had one hour to get to "Impound" and up to 4 hours to work on the car there if we wanted. After the previous 2 days we figured the less we worked on the car the better it might be!
We had to be at the "end of the road" at 6 am the next morning (Thursday) so we could get right to Impound and the car. We fired it to get a little heat in it and leaned it up another step as we were still running way rich and the EGT's looked good.
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At 7 am they led all the cars in impound down to the starting line (above). We were lined up to be the second car down the long course.
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.........................................( This Picture and the next four are by George Hakes)
With the sun just up and the temperature a cool 66 degrees I pushed Hooley off the starting line at 7:17 am.. He pulled away from the push truck a little sooner and the motor cleaned right out and you could tell he was on a mission. He was running a strong 211.174 at the 2 1/4, 219.128 in the 3rd mile, 233.354 in the 4th mile and 239.740 in the 5th mile with a 241.179 exit speed.
That gave him a 236.921 average for the new record in B/BGCC!!!
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Here Hooley is performing the "New Record -- Red Hat" victory dance at the end of the course before he even got the timing slip. Regardless of if he had the record or the red hat I'm sure he knew he just ran the run of his lifetime!!
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John stopped and got the timing slip and here Hooley is looking at it and I think just starting to realize what he had accomplished.
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By this time of the week we were down to just John, Patrick, George, myself and Hooley, but there was lots of hugs and pats on the backs. Here Patrick is congratulating Hooley.
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Here I'm giving Hooley a big hug and I even felt my eyes water a couple times.
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As we were getting ready to go back to impound Norris Anderson coasted up to us after making his return record run for a new 193.471 record in AA/MP. One of our crew members from last year, Alan Synder, now crews for Norris. I thought it was pretty neat to see two Studes next to each other after both just set a record.
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Back in impound Hooley had to pull off two rocker arms so they could "pump" the motor and check the displacement. No problems there as we are only running 400 cu. in. in a 440 cu. in. class. They also made sure the car was legal for the class.
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After that Larry Volk (left) and Dan Warner welcomed Hooley into the "200 MPH Club" with a T-shirt and his new "Red Hat". They also told him about secret pass words, hand shakes and all of that kind of stuff that we weren't allowed to witness ;-).
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Here are the two time slips that got Hooley the record with the first run on the right and the second run on the left. The goal for next year is to run over 250 mph and get him his AA license. We were only running 8 lbs. of boost, so if we turn the boost up and can get the air/fuel right and keep the motor together 250 should be do-able. We are giving up a lot in this class aero wise with the wide Stude and the almost stock nose on the car. Also we are giving up 40 cu. in. motor wise. We realize that some other cars are being built now to go after our record and wish them luck. We might loose the record at some point, but we will never loose the memories from this year. This year and my first year on the salt (1991) will forever be etched in my memory. Thanks Hooley for making the effort that got us to this point.
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After our record run Hooley asked Patrick (who is from Hooley's town and drag races his own cars) if he would like to do a licensing run. Now if you were 21 and had a couple drag cars what would you say. So after the decision was made we were off to the short course where the lines were shorter than at any point in the week.
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Here Hooley is giving Patrick final instructions before his first pass down the salt. He was running on a "D" license and had to keep the speed between 125 and 150 to qualify. I figured the rpm he should run and he ran a 142 in 3rd gear. The intent was to make one run and then go clean up our pits and get on the road. After the first run I said if the line is short how about another one.
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Hooley agreed and of course Patrick agreed and we went and got in line again. This pass he had to run between 150 and 175 for his "C" license and he easily did that with a 169 mph run.
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Patrick picked up his 3 licenses (you get the "E" one automatically if you have a drivers license) and headed for the pits and packed up for the drive home. Now there was just John, Patrick, Hooley and I left as George took off for Michigan earlier in the day.
We want to give a big "thank you" to all of those that helped us in the pits and those of you who have contributed to the car financially, with work or just cheering us on in person or by e-mails or on the phone. Thanks!!!
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About 7 p.m. after one last meal at the Salt Flats Cafe we headed east on I80. We got to Price Ut. about midnight and found all of the motels were booked. I slept in my teardrop and the other three slept sitting up in the suburban behind a truck stop. Hooley said it was the best night's sleep he got in a week.
The next morning we continued on to my place, where we put the car up on the lift and took the 800 lbs. of weight out of it as the trailer was severely overloaded. Then the guys took off for Oklahoma (Hooley & Patrick) and on to Missouri for John. They got home the next day. Wow what a year!!!
.............................-- And a little more to the story --
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Tom Burkland made one pass at Speed Week this year and it was good for high speed of the meet with a 410.997 mph exit speed and will get him the "Hot Rod Trophy" next year for "high speed of the meet".
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Tom hopes to return to the salt probably at the end of Sept. when he and possibly some others will set up an international course and attempt FIA records where they have to make the down run and return run within one hour in opposite directions. This is impossible for now at a SCTA meet such as Speed Week because of the way it is set up.
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Speedweek gave the crew some time to practice what they will have to do to make the one hour turn around time and also they made the fast run and got the Hot Rod Trophy which Tom and the crew surely deserve. Our team wants to thank Tom for all of the help he has given us this last two years long distance with our fuel system, safety suggestions, handling related suggestions, plus much more, and also suggestions that have helped me in building my lakester. I really don't think we would have achieved the record this year with out the help Tom has given us. Thanks so much Tom!!!
One last thing and then I gotta go.
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On one of our runs Joe Amo (brother Jon has landracing.com) was just ahead of us. I got to talk to him a few minutes before his run. He mentioned that the course was so slippery he just couldn't get his bike to handle and felt the 219 mph he had run up to this point was all that he could do. I took the above picture with him and his boy (a lot of love between them) just before he made his run.
A minute or so later Glen (chief timer) announces Joe had run 246.447 mph in the 4th mile. Unbelievable!! If I remember right he was about 30 mph over the record and this is with a 1000 cc bike. The fastest a 1000 cc had ever run.
Right after he ran we ran and qualified, so we both went to impound. In impound a very sad story immerged. Joe is an anesthesiologist in Rapid City, SD and is also in the Reserves. He wouldn't be able to run for the record the next day as he had to be back to Rapid City in order to fly back east for training with the military the next day. He knew what he had accomplished on that run and really wanted a chance to back it up, but packed up and left with his head high. I was impressed with his attitude and how he handled all of this. Way to go Joe and I look for you to be the first 1000 cc over 250.
The end,
Sum
................................-- On-Line Videos of the Stude --1. Our cameras in and out of the car on a run.
2. Great 20065 Speedweek Video showing Hooley's spin.
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