The Bonneville salt lake is one of the most beautiful places on earth — it is situated in north-western part of Utah in 88 miles from Salt Lake City. Snowy-white plain with smooth and very solid surface is surrounded by mountains and it is so huge that you can notice the curvature of the Earth, with amazing sunrises. Bonnevile landscapes can be seen in many movies: «Independence Day», «Bonneville», «Fastest Indian» and many others.
Firstly the Bonneville surface got its first races in 1896, but it was bicycle competition. Imagine cyclists crossing white salt lake on ancient bikes, reaching a record of 20 mph and the environment — hot, hard salt crystals stuffed into shoes, clothing, under the clothes and hair…. That can be awful! The sense of being there is similar to being in a huge snow field, or in vast white bed.
In 1907, the former lake became popular among car owners. Since the 30s Bonneville begins the history of world speed records, including the record of 622.4 mph (1001.6 kph), set in 1970 by the famous prototype named «Blue Flame», powered by a miniature copy of the jet engine from the “Appolo” spaceship.
Now the Bonneville lake races are held on different tracks with different lengths. Racers are competing in achieving maximum speed. Motorcycles and cars are divided into about a hundred classes, depending on body type, engine size and type of engine. Optionally, you can participate in several classes simply changing the engines. The most interesting classes are lakesters and streamliners with opened and closed wheels correspondingly. Records are registered by a Chronologic electronic system based on infrared sensors/ It provides an error in the measurements not more than in 1/1000 of a second. Each participant gets a printed copy of his results.
The biggest event — is Bonneville Speed Week held in August, which winners meet in October at the World Finals to set the world speed records. In September the World of Speed festival is held, where participants are driving the lake at maximum speed without records registration.
One of Bonneville races discoveries became the Bombshell Betty car, brought by Jeff Brock from New Mexico. You can google «bombshell betty». Just remove children from display before!
Jeff was born in the Flint town, situated in a hundred kilometers from Detroit. He is a sculptor of wood and metal since childhood was immersed in the world of motorcycle racing. Together with his father, he reconstructed vintage motorcycles and took part in races, showing good results in national competitions.
His famous Bombshell Betty was built on basis of 1952 Buick Super Riviera, purchased in 2008 at an abandoned sawmill near Phoenix, Arizona. For Jeff, this car has a great meaning it is made in his native land in the year of birth of his wife.
In 1999, after moving to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to a wonderful old house with a horse ranch and art studio shared with his wife, Jeff realized that he had the perfect opportunity to combine his love to metal and racing, building his own hot-roadster. The final decision came to him in January 2009 when he stared at a remake of the legendary Bill Burke belly-tank, exhibited at the largest auto exhibition «World's Greatest Roadster Show» in Pomona, California and Jeff was impresse by impeccable shape and speed of this remake.
After coming back home, Jeff thought its Buick design, based on his sculpturing and motorcycles restoring experience. It is interesting that initially he just wanted to ride on the surface of the Bonneville salt. In June 2009, Jeff decided to recruit helpers from the neighborhood and the 22-year-old Sergio Juarez and 23-year-old Lupe Niño joined Jeff, who was 48 years-old.
Inspired by watching the «Fastest Indian» movie with Anthony Hopkins starring, Brock and his assistants worked 10–12 hours a day, often seven days a week, and as a result they built a car in record short terms. The contribution to the Bombshell Betty construction was also made by Jeff's wife, Star York, and Doug Anderson mechanic from Albuquerque, who helped with the high-performance units and parts construction.
In the 7th August, 2009, at 2 pm, in the eve of the registration day at Bonneville Speed Week, where Jeff had planned to show his Buick, the team has completed the construction of the car, setting handcrafted windshield. Then Jeff and Sergio drove all night, changing each other to come to Bonneville to 4 am. Lupe Nino could not get out from the college, so he had to stay in Santa Fe.
After sleeping three hours in 9 am they had already checked in, passed the administrative check and... got into the longest scrutineering at the Bonneville ever. As team members said, «that people around us had lots of money. But our car was the most attractive. And it was not tested absolutely.»
Short terms for the project and non-standard approach led to a few hours scrutineering procedure! The question from inspector «How could you apply these solutions?» was answered by Jeff: «I read in your regulations.» Long list of corrections was completed in Sunday and Monday, and the car was admitted to his first start of Tuesday, August 10, 2009. This was a kind of record and it has added interest to this project already popular among marshals, clerks, participants and spectators.
In the debut race Jeff and his Bombshell Betty set a record in the XO/GCC class — 130,838 mph (210.56 kmh). First attempts started with 104,662 mph (168.44 kph) in his first race on August 10 (previous result is listed as 0.00 mph). And then every year Bombshell Betty appeared in Bonneville and set new and new speed records.
Betty is listed in XO/GCC class is a part of D category — modified coupes and sedans with petrol engines (Gas Competition Coupe vintage engine). XO is a type of engine, in this case cylinders are in a row. However, the rules also allow the use of V8 and V12.
Buick is equipped with 340-horsepower eight-cylindered in a row engine from Buick 1950 with 230 cubic inches (5.2 liters) of size with a four-speed transmission Super T-10, and clutch, similar to drag racing cars.
The body made of sheet-metal, makes Betty look like a bomber. Smoothed and narrowed by 6 inches nose and headlight with incredible shapes reduce the air drag coefficient. Front bumper is made of inverted truck bumper, and a specially designed air intake is installed in the front.
See the full gallery of Bombshell Betty on the Rocket Heads Racing site.
In 2010, Jeff showed the best result of 132.67 mph (213.5 kph), and it was also a new world record for the XO / GCC class. Later, in the 2010 World Finals Jeff repeated his success, setting a new benchmark — 141,821 mph (228.24 kmh) instead of the previous 134.054 mph
Since 2012, the team is named «Rocket Heads Racing», and the car has got several improvements to increase aerodynamic performance. As the result was the new speed record of 162.48 mph (261.49 kmh), the previous record (141.82 mph) was failed to beat in 2011.
In 2013 Jeff returned to Speed Week, to set a new record in the class: 165,735 mph (266.7 kph). Final World 2013 was canceled due to the rain, which washed away the salt and turned the surface into a muddy mess, so we will realize whether it is possible to overcome 170 mph only this August.
Team owner / constructor / pilot: Jeff Brock
Team: Ted Seeley, Mike Oestreich, Star York, Dennis Little, Sean Cridland, Sandra One Feather. Team Manager: Sergio Juarez
Not only American riders, but also foreigners can participate in Bonneville. For example, in 2013 at the Bonneville Speed Week Russian team took part (motor.ru/articles/2013/08/22/bonneville9) with the black and red 1932 «Buick». The performance was not very successful, but we hope that this August we will see our guys among the finalists. By the way, if you go to look at these races, keep in mind that the rental office refuses visiting salt lakes, so do not forget to wash well the car before returning it.
