| Up Date of the racing at Dry Lakes by Gail Phillips 080825 | ||
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To All Our Friends;
The POP Motorsports landspeed race
team has returned from Bonneville's Speedweek with a sad tale to
tell. The Streamliner didn't make it. Crew Chief Doug Odom made a
first test run on Monday and managed a respectable 236 MPH run
although he had an engine fire during his shut down when an oil hose
came loose. It took a day and a half to repair the damage and
change engines and then Gail drove her first test run late Wed.
The run went well until the shut down
at the 5 mile when the high-speed chute came out and all went
topsy-turvy. When we see the video that was fortunately taken by
the event videographer, we'll have a better idea about why
it happened, but at 242 MPH the car flipped on its side, slid a long
ways, then began to pencil roll until it came to a stop, fortunately
top side up.
Gail managed to get herself out, with
a little helping hand that she later discovered was her own
husband's - Al was the first car on the scene (we think he may have
driven faster than Gail). After no fewer than 5 paramedics had
checked her over she was able to convince them that she was
okay. They insisted she go to the hospital to be checked by a Dr
but it was a 2 hr drive away so she also managed to have Al drive
her instead of an ambulance. Even the Dr couldn't find anything
wrong except a slight headache which a few aspirin took care of
easily. The prediction of sore muscles the next day did not
materialize although several bruises did appear in odd places.
5 accidents occurred in 2 days but we
believe none had serious injuries, thankfully. The salt was the
best it has been in over 30 years and they had 3 courses set up, 1
long and 2 short so even the lines were manageable.
If you are so inclined here are two
links to news reports from Salt Lake City TV stations. Copy and
paste into your browser bar and then find the small TV on the page
with a heading about Bonneville then click on it to start the news
report.
Several photos are attached which we
hope won't bog down your computers too much. We are thankful that we
all returned home safe and sound and next week we will begin
thinking about our future racing plans and goals. (Doug says he can
fix the car - Yikes!)
Our best wishes to all our special
friends :-)
Gail & Al Phillips
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