jorj7

Hello All,

Just got back for the Bonneville 100. There were three 928s
signed up, but Richard (80/84 euro) got a bad tank of gas in Reno,
and had to leave his car there and continued to Wendover in his
support vehicle. This turned out great for me as he volunteered
to be my navigator. His navigator, Spencer, rode with Dave (86.5).

I missing most of the Friday practice with a high speed vibration
problem. I had to drive 60 miles to Wells, Nv to get my rear
wheels balanced. I was able to get 3 back and forth runs in,
but there was still some vibrations from 90-100 mph, so I decided to
drop down a class to 145 mph.

The race turned out great, the weather was cool (70-80 degrees) and
clear. Dave and Spencer finished 2nd in the 125 class, and Richard
and I finished 2nd in the 145 class (just .001 mph behind the winner).

I wanted to thank Richard for the great job navigating (and Dennis
for the notes from last year). He made it easy, and I just had to
focus on the driving.

<img src="http://sis125.berkeley.edu/928/2003-bonneville/P6225037.jpg" alt=" - " />
Dave's 928S (87) at the halfway point.

<img src="http://sis125.berkeley.edu/928/2003-bonneville/P6225051.jpg" alt=" - " />
My S4 (103) at the halfway point.

Anyway, I'll post a write up and photos on my site later this week.

Robert

Way to go George ! Good to see a local (NORCAL 928) car do well. Looks like your car was in great company and placed very well.

Rob

Dennis K

Congrats gentlemen! That parking lot with the big sand piles looks strangely familiar . . .

Sounds like it was close competition. How close did you come to 145.000 mph?

Anyone win any money at the Red Garter?

jorj7

Dennis,

I finished with a 144.970, but it might have well
been 149.999, I still would have finished second.
The third car in the 145 class DNS, and the fourth
car dropped down to the 140 class.

I could have probably stayed in the 150 class, but
the way the car was running, I don't think we could
have gotten higher then a 147 mph average (which
would have gotten us a 3rd place). As it was I
had to slow down to hit the 145 avg., I just slowed
down too much.

This year we were in the Stateline Nugget. I don't
think we had time to do much gambling. They packed
the schedule pretty tight.

Richard S

Hi gang. George was good enough to let me navigate for him after my car was sidelined due to bad gas. About 20 miles after topping up the tank with 11 gallons in Sparks, my car started missing and stuttering on the highway. Quickly got off at a nearby exit not really knowing what the problem was. Called AAA, took the car to Sporthaus in Reno. I've known John McClure for about 12 years, he was good enough to let me call Devek for advice, then pull the fuel filter. Fine rust fell out when it was backflushed. By now it was past 5:00 pm, so the decision was made to leave the car with Sporthaus, have them drain and clean the tank, and continue to Bonneville in the Tacoma. It turned out that the filter was clogged and the screen in the tank was gunked up as well. That seemed to fix the problem, the car drove fine from Reno to Sacramento last night. Oh well, live to race another day...the good folks at MKM racing will transfer my entry fees to next months Pony Express race.

But enough about my problems. I met up with George at the tech inspection on Friday morning. He agreed to let me navigate, so I let the officials know and we headed out to practice. A vibration in the rear wheels indicated they were out of balance, so we drove to Wells, got them re-balanced for free (thanks Les Schwab Tire Center) and got back in time for 2 full speed practice runs. Somewhat gusty over the practice section, but George was able to get up to the tech speed of 165 MPH.

Saturday was spent driving the course and discussing strategy with the course notes. Dennis had made a great set from the previous year (thanks Dennis!), so George and I only had to fine tune it a little bit.

Race day was great! Fine weather, just a little breezy. The first leg went fine, took the turns about 10 MPH over the course note estimates. Solid 165 MPH down the straights (3 to 8 miles each!) George handled the car very well, keeping close attention on the effects of the breeze. Crossed the first leg finish line and hit the stop-watches....one was EXACTLY on time, the other was 1/100 of a second early. Cool! Of course, my fingers aren't really that accurate, it’s the laser beam that counts.

The second leg started at about 12:50. Again no problems, but the breeze had picked up. Car was a little light a couple times at 165 MPH, but George kept it solid on the road. Crossed the finish line, my stop-watch indicated 16/100 of a second over. We would have to wait until awards dinner for the results.

Actually we had to wait longer than that. The program used to configure the final results wouldn't work correctly. Results weren't in until 9:00 pm. Dave Lomas, with my friend Spencer as his navigator, won 2nd place in the 125 MPH division, 0.181 MPH off of the 125 average. George and I won second place in the 145 MPH division, 0.030 off of a 145 average (144.970 MPH). The eventual winner beat us by 0.001 MPH!!!!! Damn, that's close!!!

Incredibly, there were 2 perfect runs. The 110 MPH class and the 150 MPH class each posted perfect scores, without GPS help. The 110 MPH driver didn't even have a navigator.
Look for an article in Time Magazine in the coming weeks. The reporter drove in the 100 MPH class ( I think) and the photographer rode shotgun with Roger Green (Porsche 996) in the 140 MPH class.

This weekend was a blast. I’m glad we were able to participate after having to change to Plan B. After completing my first event I think it was best to be a navigator, get a feel for everything, and then drive the next time. Again, a big thanks to George and Dave for letting us ride with them.

I’m sure George will fill in the details on his own web site when he gets the time.

Thanks again, Rich.

Ferris B

Congrats to all. I had hoped to volunteer on course this year, especially after Dave clued me in to the event a couple months ago, but couldn't make the trek.

I'm amazed at the possibility of being that accurate on speed. Incredible.

Ketchmi

Due to a brain fart on my part, we were 2 seconds off of our target time but we still had a grand time. A 928 at 125mph is stable as a rock and kind of boring considering you do not have to slow for the corners at the Bonneville 100.

Everyone that owns a 928 should try this at least once! All you need to do to compete in the 125 class is install harnesses and a fire extinguisher.

Thanks to Robert Spencer as my navigator, I hope he enjoyed himself as much as I did, and to David Parsons from NY for getting me an upper control arm in time for the race. My tired old 928 purred like a kitten (Well, more like roared like a lion with the exhaust I have) for the whole trip.

I hope to see more of you at these functions soon!

Dave

Bill Ball

George, Rich, Dave and Spencer:

CONGTRATS! on the great timing. Yes, Dave, 125 is a walk in the park for a 928, although reading Rich's comment about getting "a little light a couple of times at 165" got me feeling a bit uneasy.

Dave, come on down and do the Pony Express if you can. George, Rich and I will be there. Even at 125, which is what I guess I will do (the limit without a roll bar), the PE is a lot of fun as there are a bunch of pretty tight turns in the Gap that very few drivers can take at that speed.

Rich, too bad about the gas problem, but you got some thrills at 165 you wouldn't have had otherwise.

George, the last set of tires I had installed gave me a vibration at 120. One of the rears was off an ounce. Smooth as glass after that was remedied.

See you guys at the Pony Express. Maybe I'll pop in roll bar so I can go up a class.

urnotthesameina928

Great photos looks like you all had a great time.. wish i was there. Glad to hear that you were able to get the control arm installed in time.. I will hopefully be in a better position to get over to the west coast for this or other eventl like this next year ..will keep in touch. Dave