As I said in the last post, April has been about car shows. We went by special invitation to both the Charlotte Motor Speedway Auto Fair and the Atlanta Motor Speedway Summit Motorama. I am happy to report that both shows went well and that we had safe travels. I hope I am not speaking prematurely since we did not open the trailer last night when we got home and Mike is just now at the shop unloading.

What was interesting about both shows was that each had configured a section devoted solely to Bonneville Salt Flats cars. There were several streamliners to join ours at Charlotte. In Atlanta ours was the only streamliner but there was an array of other types of land speed racers there.

The highlight of the trips for Mike was meeting and spending time with some long-time racers. At Charlotte we spent time with Jeff Gentry, Rob Freyvogel and Paul Powell. In Atlanta we met Bob Johnson and Tommy Cox and his family. All are Speed Week attendees for many years.

A highlight for Mike at Charlotte Motor Speedway was that Keith Dorton came by especially to meet him. Keith is a top engine builder who has built engines for Nascar teams for many years. He has built engines for Dale Earnhardt, Larry Gant and Darrell Waltrip to name a few. He was responsible for delivering and picking up one of the Salt Flats cars that was there. In recent years he has developed a customer base of land speed racers. He had 7 teams using his engines this past year during Speed Week.

While at a reception on Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway Mike recognized George Poteet. George has had the top speed during Speed Week for 7 of the last 8 years. Anybody that follows land speed racing knows of the rivalry between George, Rick Vesco and Danny Thompson this past year at the Speed Week event. These guys are at the top of the sport. Mike went over and introduced himself to George and Bob Johnson. They were both very friendly, unassuming and inquisitive about our car. Mike spent about 45 minutes talking “shop” with them. In fact, we were the last to leave the reception! I am not quite sure how to describe Mike’s attitude and excitement over this conversation. He has followed George’s exploits at Bonneville for many years and was humbled (and thrilled) that he would be interested in our efforts.

As it turned out, George and Bob were around the speedway for the weekend as we were. We did not get the opportunity to spend time with George again until Sunday morning. George and his wife Melanie were very gracious to us and, again, Mike and George spent 30 minutes discussing strategies and experiences on the Salt Flats.
(Both George and Bob Johnson have had significant accidents during their years at Bonneville. Another tidbit . . . George is from Memphis, Tennessee, and Bob is from Georgia. There must be a story on how they wound up in the middle of land speed racing on the west coast.) George’s focus was not on what he has accomplished but, instead, he kept asking what he could do to help us.

Although the car show circuit can get monotonous at times, these are experiences we will treasure. Getting to spend time with others who have a passion for land speed racing has been an opportunity for which we are thankful.

On to getting ready for testing the car to get ready for Speed Week 2019 in August. It is not far off!