SALT LICKS

Tomorrow afternoon I leave on my first time ever trip to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

For the past few weeks my friend Jim Rugowski and I have been busy working with students, instructors and volunteers at Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton, Wis., to prep two cars for the September racing event at Bonneville.

The school's red Pontiac Trans Am "Beat the Heat" car is making its second trip to Bonneville. Last year it ran 184 mph before it rained and the salt got bad. This year the goal it to get the car–which is now running nitrous–into the 200 mph club.

The blue Camaro is a brand new contribution that the students and helpers have hopefully built into a racing car for the 130-150 mph racing class. As you know, it takes time to sort out a race car properly, so we'll probably be spending some wrench time at the Salt.

The cars left for Utah Wednesday morning and the rest of us will fly out tomorrow.

If any magazine or newsletter editors are interested in press information on this project or on the Fox Valley Tech auto technology program, I’ll be happy to work with them to help publicize this program and outstanding facility.