Day One....Success feels like 294 MPH!

Day One on the Salt is wrapped up...

The big news: 294 MPH!!

 

Here we go!

The car hooked up great through the third mile and Dan felt good about bringing it up to speed a little.  We haven't changed the supercharger belt or anything yet...so this speed means that all of the aerodynamic changes made over the past months really paid off.  Unfortunately the wind picked up and after a couple of hours of waiting the officials closed the track until morning.

Here are the highlights from the crew:

Dan:  "Not sinking into the marsh half a mile past the 8 mile marker!"

Dru:  "Seeing that the 2010 aero package was worth the effort"
Mike:  "Hearing that Danny Thompson walked away safely from his wreck"
Sarah:  "Jumping out of the truck and hugging my boy after a 294 MPH run" 

The parachutes didn't open the way they should have today so it took Dan three miles to slow the car down.  We'll take another test run tomorrow to see if some changes we made make a difference.  Otherwise Dan will be pulling the chutes right after the 5th mile to avoid going off the graded track.  Today's run took Dan past the 8th mile and into some soft salt.  The crew got a workout pushing the car back to the return road!

Dru, Mike, Skip Hedrich, Dan

As we were leaving tonight...Salt legend, Skip Hedrich stopped by our pit.  "Can I look at your 'liner?"  he asked Dan.  What a special treat to have someone like Skip who runs an amazing car of his own routinely over 300 MPH want to see your car!  The guys chatted for quite a while and we got some good feedback from him about our parachute situation.  Check out Skip and his car: http://www.hedrichmotorsports.com


What will tomorrow bring?  Stay tuned!