Like every year, we think we are ready and should have good running. But often times things don’t go as you planned. We had everything loaded and departed for our 12 hour trip at midnight on Aug 8th. Pretty smooth sailing all the way. Made couple of usual stops and we are on the salt at noon. Staked out the pit and went for tech inspection. Here too, no problem. By 5:00pm, we were out of there.

Since we were done with inspection, we didn’t have much to do on Friday other than change the tires, adjust the valves and get ready for tomorrow. We found out our car was on the event T-shirt. That’s a quite an Honor!

Saturday was the driver’s meeting at 9:00am. This year, we had Kid Rocker and his wife (they came to Bonneville for their Honeymoon), so I had them cruise course. They were excited to see and drive on the race course.

Since the record was bumped up to 231.959mph (373.3km/h) last October, I had my work cutout for me. We got in line for a run. At 12:37pm, I made my first run. Course was very slippery and rough. Took it easy and started to get on it around half mile off the start line. Went through all the gears and as soon as I got into top gear, it started to come around me. 188mph at 3 mile marker. You are simply on for the ride.

When you spin, you have to go back through Tech inspection again to make sure the car is safe to go for more runs. Got that out of the way, but the wind started to kick up, so we called it a day.

Sunday, after checking data logger we found out there was a problem with recording and no record. We checked the spark plugs and it looked brand new, so we decided to run it lean it a little. There was hardly anybody running. Bad salt and wind. We went for another run. It was sluggish. No power. Got passed 3 mile marker and all of a sudden, ther was a “big bang” and I knew I popped the burst plate off the blower. Pulled the chute and slowed down. Then patrol came and yelled, “Stop!” He said I was on fire and told me to discharge my fire extinguisher, so I did.

Both (Fred had 2 burst plates: one at the blower pop off box and one at the manifold) burst plates popped and the manifold side got a little hot and burned a little paint.

We changed both burst plates and decided to richen up a little and go run it. It was around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. We went for another run, but as I tried to take off from the push truck, it just wouldn’t go nowhere. Motor wouldn’t rev up and it was making weird noises, so I aborted the run.

Came back to the pit and checked things out and we decided that the coupler that runs the blower broke. That’s something I didn’t have a spare of. This was the end of our Speed Week 2013 challenge.

Since it was only Monday, we left the vending trailer behind and headed back to Santa Fe Springs.

We pulled the motor out and apart and found the chain that holds the coupler was binding. That’s what was making noise. Coupler is fine. We’ll put the motor back together and look forward to the World Final at Bonneville in October.