BONNEVILLE HERE WE COME

A red Trans Am and blue Camaro that I worked on with the Fox Valley Technical College “Beat the Heat” team are loaded and on their way to Bonneville. Some of the students, teachers and adult advisers left Wednesday morning towing the Pontiac in an enclosed red trailer and the blue Camaro on an open trailer. If you see them go by, give them a wave!

I really did very little on the cars. After my recent bout of A-Fib, I’m taking it as easy as I can on my old ticker. Jim Rugowski and I built a spoiler for the Camaro and I measured up some shims for the Camaro rear axle. The FVTC students did most of the work and I’d hire any of them in a heartbeat. In fact, a good employee like them might give me a few extra heart beats some day.

I’m flying out of Green Bay today with lead instructor Dave Sarna and at least one of the students who couldn’t get time off from work until today. Another student who really knows how to turn wrenches has a wedding to attend, before he drives out to Bonneville with his wife. Somehow we’re all going to converge on the Salt Flats.

The goal is for Dave Sarna to hit 200 mph with the red Trans Am and for the second driver to reach for 150 mph with the Camaro. Remember, the Trans Am has raced before, but the Camaro was still being worked on this past Tuesday night and is untested in competition. You all know what that means.

Assuming that my laptop is going to make it safely to Wendover, I will be posting daily blogs from Utah on how the racing is going. If Dave Sarna (the former mayor of Manawa, Wis.) reaches 200 mph there are going to be a lot of “car guys” (and car girls) with smiles on their faces at Valley Technical College, and in Appleton and in Manawa. Racing at Bonneville is once-in-a-lifetime stuff for most people and I’m sure that the FVTC students are going to remember this experience for years to come.