We did it! On Sunday morning the Challenger 2 was released from impound and made a 402.348mph return run. Averaged with yesterday's 411.191mph speed, that gave us a new AA/FS record of 406.7mph!* This was an achievement fifty years in the making. Bonneville put my dad on the map, but he was never able to get an official 400mph plus record out here on the salt. I'm proud to say that this weekend my crew and I were able to take care of his unfinished business. A massive thank you to my family, my team, and to all of my sponsors. None of this would have been possible without their committed and steadfast support. God knows we've run into obstacles along the way. They were always behind me, and I'll remain grateful to them for that until the day I die.
In terms of the actual run, it was much smoother than yesterday. The SCTA officials moved the track approximately 80ft eastwards, and the surface felt much nicer, especially towards the big end. The shutoff area was also much improved. Additionally, we were able to run very early in the morning compared to Saturday, which meant a firmer surface. We made plenty of traction and the Challenger 2 handled superbly well. Compared to yesterday's somewhat squirrelly run, today's drive was a pleasure.
So why didn't we go faster? We had an issue with the rear engine. A screw in a barrel valve responsible for distributing fuel vibrated out, which flooded the engine and caused it to run very fat. In some of the video's posted online you can actually see the fuel being blown out of the headers. Consequently, we were way down on horsepower. But even with that problem we were able to surpass the 400mph mark and backup our record. I couldn't be happier with that result! More updates tomorrow, and another huge thank you to my team.
*For those of you who are historically minded, that's 0.1mph faster than my dad's un-backed-up 1960 run in the Challenger I.
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