Hi Mark, Good hearing from you ! IF by " a heavy " you' re
referring to the
tractor trailers, they are ALREADY running well over two bills on the
beautiful white
pool table in western Utah ! I have some photos of a large 40s or early
50s
bodied truck that I took in 1987, when Darrell and I made our first of (
hopefully ! )
many trips to Bonneville . This truck had steel " skis " of heavy plate
mounted
under the front straight axle, just inboard of the kingpins, to allow it to
slide over
the salt if the much smaller front tire patch area should start to crunch
through the
salt anywhere on the course . These skis provided a much larger area of
support than the front tires, of course, and were well mounted and
constructed .
I recall thinking that these were a great safety item that could also
be used
on cars, especially some that were running dropped front axles that could
dig in
if the front wheels broke through at a thin spot on the salt . The slight
aerodynamic drag and unsprung weight increase ( if mounted to the axle,
itself )
that these skis would cause might be offset by the confident knowledge that
your
front axle wouldn' t be hanging up in a bad spot . The likelihood of this
occurring
is very remote, especially on the actual course, but these still could have
a place
on a traditional style early coupe or roadster running without a bellypan
that could
serve the same function as the skis . Just a thought of mine ........
I never gave much thought to the actual salt surface of Bonneville
........ I
guess I thought it to be SOLID all the way down to a base of bedrock or
some
other underlying material . Darrell and I found out ..... the HARD way
..... in
1987, that this was not the case ! We drove way down the side of the course
to a point fairly near the Floating Mountain, as I wanted to get a head on
shot of a
liner with its chute trailing behind it . We waited awhile ....... no
liner coasted
by ........ we realized the liner had run into a problem ....... so we got
back into
the little rental car I got in SLC , and as I went to start the car ,
THUMP !!!
The front end of the car dropped down ....... we looked at each other ......
???
We got out to find BOTH front wheels broken thru the salt, which to my GREAT
amazement was about 5 / 8 " thick , with a chocolate covered MUD below
!!!
We then had quite a long walk, finally got picked up by a course worker
who told us he had been watching us thru binoculars for over an hour, and
took us
back to the pits . Getting the rental car out of its resting place , way
out there ,
was an adventure in itself , and I will just say here that a number of nice
people
helped us out, most notable being my friend " Dual Deuce " Dan Hostetter, of
the San Diego Roadster Club, who transported Darrell and I, along with
boards
and plywood, out to within a mile or so of our stranded rental car, until his
' 32
coupe started breaking thru, itself, you could hear the wheels crunching in .
I told Dan that was it ...... we didn' t need to get his car stuck,
too ........
so Darrell and I lugged the boards the last mile ....... or a little more, and
finally got the FWD rental crapcan out of the muddy mess , and back to the
TERRA FIRMA of the pit area ....... to my GREAT relief ! I had spent
most
of the previous night awake, and wondering what to tell the rental company,
or,
worse yet, would I have to PAY for a rental car which was a mere speck in a
sea of white, when seen from the shutdown area ? ALL worked out well,
however , and I always refer to our ' 87 trip to Speedweek as our Million
Dollar
Trip, as it seems that nowadays . The Last Laugh was had ..... on Darrell
and I,
by none other than the late, GREAT Doug " Cookie " Cook, of Stone, Woods,
and Cook ' 60s gasser fame, and Mike Cook's dad, when he spotted us in our
rental car in Wendover, on the day we were leaving, and he yelled to us, "
Hey, I see you guys finally got your car unstuck ! ", and he laughed ! To
this day, I
do not know how he new it was us, or that car, that had been stuck in the
salt,
" way out there ", but he was absolutely RIGHT !!! Over ten years later,
when
Darrell and I made our first and only visit to El Mirage, I saw Doug Cook
sitting
by his trailer, and went over and spoke with him, and we had a laugh over that
story from Speedweek ' 87 ....... a great remembrance to me of a man who was
one of my drag racing heroes, who I saw many times, but never got to speak
with, at a number of drag meets in the Great Gasser Wars years .
Bruce Ferguson ....... mighty thankful that car is no longer a speck
down near the Floating Mountain !!!
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