48Dodger Posted July 29, 2011 Report Posted July 29, 2011 This year will be the second running of our 1950 Dodge Truck at the Bonneville Saltflats in September. We decided to fund this event through donations instead of sponsorship, so as to benefit The Wounded Warrior Project. My nephew was seriously wounded in combat, and feel this is an important group to support. For 2011, half the donations will go to WWP and the rest to the development of the 50 truck. The hope is to increase the donated money to 80 percent, and create an opportunity for WWP members to race on the salt. Achieving this goal has its steps, the first of which is to get the approval of WWP of our planned event and the permission to put thier logo on the truck. That approval showed up today! We're creating a FB page and hope to grow the event over the years. This is a great start, and hope to do an excellent job of representing what the Wounded Warrior Project is doing for our returning soliders. The official name for our event is: Estrada MotorSports on the Salt Flats, benefitting Wounded Warrior Project 48D aka Timothy A. Estrada http://www.youtube.com/user/194853DodgeTrucks Past threads about the 50 Dodge: http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=14259 http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=15472 http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=23651 http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=23667&highlight=bonneville http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=23688 Quote
HanksB3B Posted July 29, 2011 Report Posted July 29, 2011 to say how I hurt for your Nephew . Please tell me where to send the check to and who to make it out to. Good job on the film! Wishing you success:D. Hank Quote
48Dodger Posted July 29, 2011 Author Report Posted July 29, 2011 (edited) Thank you Hank. I can't tell you how proud I am of my Nephew. I wish I could tell you everything he's done and the awards he has received, but that isn't possible yet. Let me just say he spent several months recovering from his injuries, returned to his unit, and picked up where he left off. Tragically his best friend was killed a week ago while aiding an afghan commando during combat. My nephew escorted his friend all the way home to return him to his friends family. I've spent 27 years of my life helping people in the Emergency room. I work in the field of Radiology, mostly on the graveyard shift. Seeing these brave guys come home with new life challenges drives me to be involved with WWP. If I can help someone by letting them drive my old truck on a salt track....well...that would be awesome. 48D Edited July 30, 2011 by 48dodger Quote
48Dodger Posted September 8, 2011 Author Report Posted September 8, 2011 Only a week left until opening day on the Salt Flats. I'm sad to say the team will be minus a few guys this year. Bob and his brother may not be able to make it. We had the best time last year (we're already doing a bit of planning for 2012). Bob's new job isn't going to allow for the time off which is completely understandable. But boy, I can sure feel the void in the "race time continuum"....that leaves me and the kid (my 19 y/o son) to sort things out. Our goal was to benefit a charity (which we are doing), to run faster (which should happen) and enjoy more of the event this time. I think Bob did a much better job of looking around, meeting people and taking it all in than I did. He posted some really beautiful morning horizon pictures and cars that I had missed. He also did a nice job, telling the story of our first trip to Bonneville, here on the forum. I plan on sharing what happens with Bob as it happens and hope he can post it in a new thread. I consider so many of you guys here on the forum friends and can't imagine not hearing your reactions to whatever happens. Also I'll be happy to PM my number to anyone who wants to call, give me a bad time, ask about the truck, or just see how its going. The truck looks good....fresh primer....taller tires....fixed gremlins in the dash, and built a bed cover. We've been calling it "The Brick".....but thinking we need a faster name for good luck..lol:D Any ideas?? 48D Quote
Reg Evans Posted September 20, 2011 Report Posted September 20, 2011 So Tim...how did the second running of "The Brick" go ? Quote
48Dodger Posted September 20, 2011 Author Report Posted September 20, 2011 Tough trip to say the least. Without the crew, it was a big job. The road trip was fine...13 hours. We were happy to see the salt at 6:00pm, but the "gate" was closed so we chatted up the security guy who remembered us from last year. We hit the motel with everything in tow. The first guy we met was a Motorcycle Land Speed Racer, Sam. He had a riding vest on that had 11 years worth of bonneville racing patches. We talked through the chain link fence for an hour, since he was staying at the hotel next to ours. Next day we put together the truck and went through tech. Since I didn't have my partner Bob re-reading the rules, I missed the entry about metal valve stems. Last year we had to have metal valve caps...which we all thought was silly. This year metal valve stems were manditory. I guess we weren't the only ones missing that part cuz the local parts store was sold out. We had to order the stems for the morning. I spent some time with Eric, who has been coming to Bonneville with his Plymouth for years now. We talked shop and figured a few things out for more power. Guess it worked cuz he felt faster...right up untill he blew the head gasket. He ended the racing part of his trip early, but stayed for the fun. After getting our tires worked out, the gremlins hit. Blown ballast, dead feul pump, bad alignment, etc.... none of those things happened at the same time. We had fixed the ballast, went to the starting line (5miles from the pits) and couldn't race. A motorcyclist had flipped his bike and was taken to the hospital via the Ambulance. The ony Ambulance there....which meant no more racing for the day. On our return to the pits....feul pump dies...another 14 mile trip to the store... Friday we seemed to have everything worked out. The new problem was the alignment. We had different tires for this year and had smaller tire contact patches for traction. The toe was out, and the caster wasn't to my liking. We changed the caster to about -2 and set the toe out about 3/8 of an inch. Just enough to help with the hard conditions of the salt. We had experienced a heavy rain the night before which helped form a solid crust on the salt. A little to hard for my Pilot-House. Traction became an issue right away....I had a terrible time keeping the truck straight. There were two very prominant bumps half way down the track. Hitting those bumps at 80 mphs was throwing me off the pace. If you get off the throttle, getting the speed back is diffcult due to lose of traction. Tires slip at almost any speed. I tried to muscle through the bumps on the third run, but almost rolled the truck when I couldn't keep the rear tires behind me. To add to it, I spun out at the end of the run.....lol. The Official said.."Welcome to the 360 club"...lol. We couldn't get it over 100 mph cuz of the traction.....real frustrating. Our day, and racing, came to an end with a blown main oil seal, and a hole in the oil filter. The oil filter was rubbing agaisnt the frame and let us know it hurt by filling the cab with smoke.... We enjoyed the night with a high dollar dinner and talking with other racers. The motorcyclist last I heard, suffered bruises and a broken collar bone. A few had the same complaints we did about the racing conditon of the salt, but all in all....good laughs. A lot of visitors love the Pilot-House and were glad to see one at the races. So many over seas folks who knew about them as well. A guy from Belgium must have taken about 20 pictures of the truck. Several Aussies stopped by as well as a few from England. Our favorite were a bunch of dudes locally. Utah Valley University. They asked me to take a picture of them and thier car, a 200mph plus El Camino. I was busy trying to replace the fuel pump, but had made myself a promise to enjoy the trip and meet more people. So I grabbed thier cameras....about 7 of the them...and fired off a bunch of pictures. We laughed and joked about each others rides. They offered to help get our truck running, but we declined since we had it under controlled. so instead we took a picture of them surrounding the truck. Saturday was rained out....the racing was over.....the storm was a big one. A lot of people had to wait til monday, I think, to retrieve thier stuff on the flats. We on the other hand had backed up friday evening. We met more racers on the way home at rest areas and small towns...so the trip really wasn't over til we pulled into our very own driveway.....lol As a side note...we blew two tires out on the trailer coming home....we had to leave the truck and trailer on the freeway as we went back to the next town to get tires.....only a 2 hour delay....but leaving our beloved Brick on the freeway alone???? That was really the toughest part of the whole trip. 48D Quote
Don Coatney Posted September 21, 2011 Report Posted September 21, 2011 Thanks for the report and sorry for the bad luck! Eric was on the forum several years back. Here is an old photo of his car. Quote
4msfamly Posted September 21, 2011 Report Posted September 21, 2011 What a great story! Maybe I can convince the wife to let my daughter and I race next year if we can get our '55 done! I'd be happy to break 70! Marc Quote
ggdad1951 Posted September 21, 2011 Report Posted September 21, 2011 What a great story! Maybe I can convince the wife to let my daughter and I race next year if we can get our '55 done! I'd be happy to break 70!Marc I'd be lucky to break 50! Quote
HanksB3B Posted September 22, 2011 Report Posted September 22, 2011 sounds like you still managed to have a great time! Better Luck Next Time, Hank Quote
4msfamly Posted September 22, 2011 Report Posted September 22, 2011 I just re-read your story.... how big was that bump? I was thinking bumpsteer.. but then remembered you have IFS AND IRS, your tires don't look "that" skinny. The salt must be like driving on sand over asphalt? And spinning a truck at close to 100mph does NOT sound fun... I think I might have to change my clothes after that. Hmmm.... I STILL want to try it! Marc Quote
48Dodger Posted September 23, 2011 Author Report Posted September 23, 2011 I had to trust my truck to correct things under momentum and stay off the brakes...but, ya.....a bit nerve racking. I would reccomend that anyone should go...to race or not. There are so many people willing to talk shop and let you see their ride up close. Plus no one cares if you plan on going a record speed or not! There is a day for those guys and trust me....they'll be making time watch you too. 48D Quote
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