Bonneville Streamliner Updates August 21 2008

Thursday August 21st, 2008

In Bar's own words, "Once the officials had performed the final check on my 7-point seat belt harness, verified my visor was down, the crew closed the rider compartment hatch and secured it, while Bob Williams lined up behind the streamliner to assume the push-start position with his special wheelchair sidecar. Once the starter had given us the go-ahead Bob pushed me up to approximately 40mph at which point I let out the clutch and pushed the foot throttle to the floor. As the bike is geared very high it took a long time to get to the 11,500 rpm redline that our gear charts indicated we needed to hit our 185 mile objective on this run. The redline green lights started flashing and I backed off the throttle slightly, triggered the first to second gear shift and buried the throttle again. Once I reached the higher rpm's in second gear I noticed there appeared to be a force steering me slightly to the left so I corrected with the handlebars which respond in a normal motorcycle fashion.

As the green redline shift lights appeared again at 11,500 I made another speed shift to third gear. By now we were well into the first to second timed mile stretch and I was building rpm to enter the third to fourth timed mile stretch to get our official reading. As I was approaching the higher rpm's of third gear I ultimately would have reached 11,500 and then held that limit with my throttle all the way through that timed section.

However, I once again experienced a force which were side gusts of wind that started to steer the streamliner to the left. I tried to make a correction but the force of the sidegust was too strong and it became apparent to me that I was no longer in control of the steering and would ultimately crash off the course to the left. The streamliner rolled onto its left side just shy of 180 mph and was sliding nose-first until it encountered some pressure cracks and rough stuff off the groomed track surface. As it hit the first pressure crack, it launched the streamliner into the air and landed with a tremendous slam and then launched again. It skipped like a stone alternating between launching and slamming the surface 5 or 6 times. While all this was going on I was quite secure in my harness. I started to notice that the pitch blackness of the enclosed capsule was starting to let in daylight and realized that the rider compartment hatch was starting to open due to the pounding the streamliner was receiving. I tried to hold the hatch closed by the handlebars, when the bars and hatch were violently ripped out of my hands as the hatch disappeared. (witnesses described seeing the large engine cover panel plus one other flying through the air upon impact)

Realizing that the rider compartment may now fill up with salt as it scraped down the course, at that point I closed my eyes to keep the salt out. My knees were flailing about and I was aware of them contacting various compartment components and, as the hatch disappeared my left hand was flung violently against a structural member. After skipping across the salt for what was measured later to be over a half a mile, I finally came to a halt, quickly undid my leg belt and 7-point harness and arm restraints, exited feet first in a roll out as the streamliner ended up laying on its left side. I immediately got up, waved both arms over my head to let the safety support people know that I was all right. Their response was phenomenally quick. Within seconds there were medical, fire, and safety people bearing down in trucks. I was checked out to see if I knew what my name was, what day it was and if I knew who the President was, to which I answered 'Jimmy Carter'! After the medical team were satisfied that I was all right they released me. Meanwhile the very battered streamliner was impounded to go through an extensive forensic crash investigation. This is important as their findings impact future safety regulations.

My injuries consist of very battered knees and we're not sure yet if my left hand is broken as it is very badly swollen and beginning to develop varying degrees of yellow and purple. But all in all, after what witnesses described as one of the most spectacular crashes that they had seen it's a real tribute to the integrity of the structure that Bob Williams created that I can tell you this story.

I feel very bad that the streamliner is wrecked and it is obvious that the record attempt is over for this year."

Unfortunately the damage to the streamliner is too severe to continue. We'll spend another day at the Salt Flats on Friday. Someone has told us there may be photos of the crash so we'll try to get a couple for the web-site. If you've been following the story we know you'd be interested to see them. Not the ending we were hoping to bring you but stay tuned for more news in a day or two.

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