Another 'Excellent' meeting this morning with 24 members and our guest speaker Zooming in.
This morning’s guest speaker was Roger McGarry (Penny’s Bro). Roger has entertained us for an evening meeting earlier this year (but on a different topic) and was so engaging, we were keen to have him back.
This time Roger talked to us about his trips to Bonneville Speedway. Based on the Bonneville Salt Flats northeast of Wendover, Utah, this is the venue for ‘Speed Week’. Here numerous events take place for various classifications of cars and bikes (and one road bicycle) competing for land speed records.
Roger is involved with the CMR Team (Cook Motor Racing) and has travelled to the Salt Flats in 2016, 2017 & 2018. 2019 the Flats were flooded and of course the past two years have been a ‘no go’ due to Covid.
Roger explained there were two courses of up to 8 miles long, with about three miles for braking. The length of the course is somewhat dependent on the conditions of the salt which is prepared weeks before the events.
The salt flats used to be around 100,000 acres and five feet think but are sadly deteriorating and now only around 30,000 acres and about 30 inches thick. Roger showed a photograph of the salt that cakes the vehicles (around 20kgs) which obviously contributes to the deterioration.
There are heaps of safety and technical rules for racing and very strict scrutineering with one course called ‘Rookie’ and the other called ‘Long’. Competitors work up a licensing system to race at increments of 100 mph. At least one person a year is killed is killed racing.
Land-speed records and the term Hotrod grew from the Salt Lake Racing which started from military aircraft trained personnel building and racing belly tanker cars from parts that were available on the Airforce base.
NZ’s Burt Munro is of course famous for racing the Worlds’ Fastest Indian on a 1920 Indian Scout at this venue.
Reg Cook is the Principal of the CMR team and each year, sends over a shipping container with the team’s cars and gear. There are about 15 people in the team. Roger helps with food logistics and some promotion and PR work.
He explained the event is a weeklong, with long days usually starting at 4:30-5:00am and not finishing until around 6:00-7:00pm. If your car passes a record speed it is then impounded overnight, and you then have to back up your time the next day.
Currently Reg is working on a car that could potentially go 800 kmp. This will have to be raced in Bolivia as the Bonneville course is too short for these speeds. The plan is for a team of around 75 to go to Bolivia, which will cost around $2 million to fund.
Thank you for another fun and interesting presentation Roger. He is keen to join the team in Bolivia, and it that happens, we will certainly be inviting him to present again!
Co-Presidents St. Johns Rotary, Penny McGarry (Ph: 021 702 310), and Lesley Harris (Ph: 027 4935 498)
Penrose Rotary will once again be running the Online Charity Auction that was so successful last year. This commences in one weeks on Friday 22nd October and closes on Sunday 7th November.
Recently our 'Toothbrush in Schools' champion Penny Leyland was contacted by RC Papakura who are establishing this project in some schools in Papakura. Penny was storing five spare toothbrush units and received approval from our Board to donate these to RC Papakura for their new projects. She received the following thank you email:
