The Bonneville Salt Flat Experience- Salt Shaken

"There are mile markers that you have to pay attention to, but on that first run, I was on the three-mile course, I was so busy looking at that darn tachometer to make sure I was hitting the right numbers, it then occurred to me about halfway through, 'oh shoot; I've got to look for mile markers too! And then I didn't see one for, oh, I don't know how many seconds, and I'm thinking, 'oh my God I hope I didn't pass the three-mile yet.' It all happens so fast. You're only in that car from start to finish for, maybe, what...three minutes? It all happens so fast. I remember looking up thinking 'I forgot to look for the markers!' I finally saw the three-mile and thought 'oh good, I can pull the parachute.' But it's such a vast area that I wasn't sure where to pull off to.

"I pulled to the right to where I was supposed to go, but apparently I pulled a little too far to the right. There was a third course set up this year, and I wasn't in any danger, but I should have kept closer to the course I was on. The officials came over and yelled at my brother, Jeff, they didn't realize I was the one driving because I was already in the truck taking my suit off. So after the guy's gone through his spiel yelling at him, Jeff says 'Umm, it wasn't me driving; it was that blonde back there in the truck.' So the guy says 'Oh, well that explains a lot.' I just laughed, I didn't take it personally. I mean I drove the car, right? I did it!

"Once I got through that first run, oh my gosh it was such a blast. I felt so...relieved. I could do it! I finally knew it! The best part was after that very first run, getting out of the car and having my dad, my brothers and my mom running over to me and just being so happy and excited for me," she reflected. "But I did it; I was successful, I drove a car at the Bonneville Salt Flats," she said, her voice rising in excitement. "That was probably the best moment of the whole week, doing that first run, getting out of the car, and realizing that I did it.

"When you're a rookie at Bonneville, you're only allowed to go so fast, you have to work your way up to certain speeds and your first pass can't be faster than 150. So my first pass I did 140. That was to get my D license. My second pass, I did 161 and got my C license. And then the third run I did was for my B license.

"You can't go faster than 200 on that one. I went 187 but I was actually trying to go 200 and just say 'oops, sorry; I didn't know,'" she said, laughing. "But when I was in the fourth mile of the track I smelled smoke, like something was burning. So I had to shut down the engine and pull the parachute and get off the track right away. It turned out a belt broke, but until then I had my foot in it as far down as I could go and I was still only going 187. Dad thinks I could've gotten closer to that 200 mark, but I lost boost when the belt broke. So they fixed the belt, they made some changes in the engine, and then the car was ready to go again.

"Quite frankly, after that 187 mph run, I was a little freaked out. I thought 'this is crazy; I have two boys at home. I don't need to do any more racing.' So then dad took another run and on our last day, my brother Jeff got in the car. He took the last run of the week and went 201-that was our goal for the week, to go 200 in this car. So after I saw my brother do 201, I thought to myself, 'oh...I really want to go 202 and beat him!'

"I've had a lot of friends ask me, 'What does it feel like to go 187 mph?' I don't know how to explain it because the car is so solid and went so straight. It almost felt like you were driving down the freeway. You have none of those barriers or the trees or cars next to you, so you have no sense, you don't realize how fast you're going. There are no references. It's just...weird.

"We were supposed to go back (for the World Finals in October), but rains canceled the meet. I hope next year I'll be able to get my A license. The A license is 200 and over. That's my next goal-to get that A license. I just want to go 200mph.

"It was an absolute blast-way more fun than I ever thought it would be. I really appreciate how much time, effort and money everybody-my dad, my brothers, Jerry Magnuson's team and all our other sponsors-put into this project. I really want to thank all of them for this opportunity. So now my dad says that I've been bit by the Bonneville bug. I've got the Salt in me now and I can't wait to get back!"

Chuck Vranas
Talk hot rods with Chuck Vranas and you'd think the last half a century hadn't happened. As far as he's concerned, radials don't exist, disc brakes are exclusive to airplanes, and the verdict isn't quite in on Chevrolet's V-8.

But for all his years in this industry, he's never done so much as raced the clock on a drag strip. "I've owned hot rods, sure, burnouts here and there and all, but nothing like this."

What he did was earn his Southern California Timing Association-Bonneville Nationals Inc. rookie license. But how he did it is just about as important as the license itself: he drove a roadster that belongs to Ken Schmidt and Keith Cornell, AKA the Rolling Bones. It's a car that, for the most part, resembles the way a double-duty street/lakes roadster would've looked when Truman handed the reins to Ike.