Congratulations!
August/19/2009 00:46
Congratulations are in order for the Speed Demon LSR team. Local gearhead George Poteet pounded the Bonneville salt to the tune of an official 394 mph (that's an average) at the 5 mile mark, earning top speed of the meet during the 2009 edition of Speed Week. Of further note, the Speed Demon exited the course at a phenomenal 401 mph, thereby acheiving a long standing goal that this team has held since day one.
While the 401 mph number is not a new record, it should provide considerable satisfaction to the "Demon" team to realize such a number. The Speed Demon streamliner is also the current & undisputed top dog at Bonneville. Something tells me that that a 400+ mph run is destined to be etched into the record books soon, but there is a pretty strict process of back-up runs required to get an "average" that can stand as a record at Bonneville. There's more to it than one would expect, and it puts real meaning to George's words... "If you don't earn it, it ain't worth it".
Chad Reynolds at bangshift.com caught George's nonplussed reaction to the run as soon as he shed his crash hat, as well as some seat of the pants feedback to engine guru Ken Duttweiler.
Note: This video has yet to play real efficiently on any computer I've tried it on (it plays faster than it loads). It could be my connection to the internet(on 4 different machines no less), but it might be caused by sunspots or some such... who knows? It's a bit frustrating, but there seems to be a simple work around on most machines... so let it play through once with it's hiccups, and then try it again. The cache will provide a much smoother experience the second time around.
LK