Bonneville Speed Week ’23
August 2023 • By Nestor Cabrera and Tony Thacker
Presented by HandHFlatheads.com, MicksPaint.com and USAutomotive.co.ukI’m a relative newbie. I only started going to Bonneville in 1975 but I don’t ever remember a string of bad luck such as we have endured over the past five years. However, despite another year of rain, many racers braved the conditions and thanks to the SCTA-BNI and their amazing team of volunteers managed to set 26 new records.
The TorqTalk team tagged along to observe the teams of Brit Geoff Stilwell with his record-holding 7707 blown fuel rear-engine modified roadster, CadZZilla designer Larry Erickson and his 776 team and Bruce Wanta with his roadster pickup built by Kev Elliott and prepared by Troy Ladd’s Hollywood Hot Rods. It was a struggle for all.
Unlike 2022, when we arrived to superb conditions only to have torrential rains wash out the event before it even started, this year we arrived to an already flooded lake. Many racers who had traveled from as far away as Australia, England, Europe, New Zealand and Japan chose to turn around and head home but just as many chose to battle Mother Nature—guess who won?
Eventually, on Monday, officials allowed racers to access the lake and what we found was several miles of ankle-deep salt water and the pits rutted and puddled. It was a mess and many chose to sit it out—Tuesday would be the first day of racing.
Tuesday dawned and it was worse than Monday but Bill Lattin’s magnificent SCTA-BNI team had managed to carve out a 3-mile course on the highest part of the lakebed. And, to put all the naysayers to bed, Chris Raschke driving the Speed Demon 715 powered the streamliner to a credible 286.552 mph—up for grabs the Hot Rod Magazine trophy for the fastest speed of the meet. Steve did, unfortunately, blow an engine but they had more and would eventually grab their 11th Hot Rod trophy.
Wednesday looked better as we rolled onto the lake but deeper in we discovered that overnight the wind had turned and blown the water from the entrance of the track to the pits that were now more rutted and more deep—it was a mess. Geoff Stilwell, among others, chose not to run but Chris Raschke went out again with a 444 ci engine and bumped Demon’s speed to 333.360 mph only to see that motor blow and the wiring catch fire. That night would be another long one for Steve Watt’s team as they rebuilt the streamliner, again.
Sadly, Bruce Wanta and Troy Ladd’s team fared little better—it was their first time on the salt. They got onto the track after an interminable wait in line only to window the block.
After waiting all day from getting on the salt at 6:30 am until after 6 pm Geoff Stilwell finally got to run in what would actually be his first ever pass on the salt in the new 7707 built entirely at Mick’s Paint in Pomona, California. Geoff got off to a good start but after a day’s racing the course was well rutted, nevertheless, he managed a credible 223.362 after popping the chutes a tad early. Geoff’s speed placed him third in the speed table under Speed Demon and Ed Umland in Eddie’s Chop Shop streamliner with a speed of 231.865 mph.
Thursday saw no real improvement. In fact, it had rained again overnight and we arrived to even bigger pot holes in the pits comparable only to the pot holes in California’s highways. Anything left out overnight had washed away and most of the ports potties had tipped over in protest of the wind—it was a shitshow. To make matters worse, we found a split in 7707’s fuel tank that put paid to any more runs.
As Bonneville Speed Weeks go, it was memorable sadly not because of great conditions and falling records but another year of adverse conditions—now, who said it was easy.
For more info about land speed racing visit www.SCTA-BNI.org