List, (Hit delete at any time)
I've been there with my old partner Howard Nafzger. We set the FIA
Category A - Group 1 - Class 5 (750-1100cc) current record on August 21
1989 at 241mph in the mile.
There was an amazing amount of pressure. One of our crew who was a cop
in the San Jose PD and an Air force Academy grad who flew an F-105 Thud,
down RP-6 in Viet Nam said the pressure was about the same as getting shot
at as a cop and second only to flying over Hanoi in a Thud.
Frankly, I'm not sure why we felt so much pressure. I think it was imposed on
us by ourselves and the @+*^$%^# CLOCK.
We had a real advantage over the current folks. Back then the BNI rules prepared
you for the FIA short turnaround time. It took 3 runs to set a record over a
two
day period. Day one, you qualified for a record run by exceeding last years
record.
The next day, you made a down run when the track opened and parked in an
impound area at the 7 mile. After all down runs were complete, return runs
started
in the same order as down runs. We experienced 1 1/2 to 3 hours wait between
runs. You couldn't make record runs if you had a car that required more than 2
hours turn around time. Everyone made returns runs with hot to very warm
engines, transmissions, wheel bearings, driver ....... everything.
The number of cars back then allowed time for this. I don't think there is
enough
room on the salt for the number of courses you would need to run during one
event
to allow the old 3 run procedure.
We could go to SpeedMonth, but where would the volunteers come from? Hire
course workers? $2,000.00 entry fee anyone??
If you haven't hit delete yet, thanks for letting be babel,
Bryan
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