Seth Hammond's Salt Flats Lakester

[RayTheRat]

No...the thumbnail photo isn't Hammond's lakester.  Read on and see the explanation.

I saw a photo of Seth "No Nitro" Hammond's old lakester in a post and since I've photographed that car, the Modified Roadster that he ran for a couple of years and his "new" lakester, I offered to post some of the photos.  So here they are.  But first, I'll explain that Lakesters are Special Construction vehicles with exposed wheels.  Those with wheels covered by fenders or other bodywork are Streamliners.  This classification is made by the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) and most other US Land Speed Racing (LSR) sanctioning bodies use the same general classification system.  Photo 1 is a "belly tank lakester."  This one is the "Old Crow" and runs a Model A Ford 4-banger with a turbocharger in the Blown Gas Lakester (BGL) class.

Photo 2 is the Hammond's old lakester as it stood in the Staging Lanes in October of 2003.  He'd run the car in excess of 300 mph earlier in the day.  I've included a photo of the car at speed that was shot in 2001: photo 3.  Very soon after he went thru the 2 of the 3 timed miles there was radio traffic that indicated an crash had occurred and a command to roll the EVs (Emergency Vehicles.) Photos 4 & 5.  All I could see from the pit area located roughly around the 3 mile mark was some activity around the 7 mile mark, photo 6.

It seems that there had been  a problem with a wheel or tire and the car had become airborne for a short time, then landed and "pencil rolled" at least 6 times.  The car was destroyed and Seth was taken to a Salt Lake City, Ut hospital.  His injuries were minimal, considering the violence of the crash and the fact that he had to be cut out of the car by the safety workers.

I'll continue this in the next post.

[RayTheRat]

Continuing on from the previous post.....

There's almost zero tv coverage of LSR.  By its nature it doesn't lend itself to live coverage and the local tv stations don't care about any form of auto racing, period.  The only time that there's any interest is when someone is killed or seriously injured.  Apparently someone contacted a local tv station and told them about Hammond's accident and they immediately sent out a helicopter (photo 7) with a cameraman/reporter. (Photo   I'm always reminded of the Don Henley song, "Dirty Laundry" when something like this happens:

We got the bubble-headed-bleach-blonde who
Comes on at five
She can tell you 'bout the plane crash with a gleam
In her eye
It's interesting when people die-
Give us dirty laundry


Not long after he started that interview, an SCTA official (Roy Creel) showed up.  He gave a very brief interview, stating that the car had gone out of control,
crashed and that the driver had been airlifted to a hospital in Salt Lake City.  (Photo 9)

As it turns out,  Hammond, was released from the hospital the following Monday with a cracked vertebrae and bumps and bruises.  He told people that he would rebuild the 77 car or build a new one.  Great news after a very scary event.

Fast forward to 2005.  Before I continue the Hammond story, I'll add some photos of John Fitch and his Mercedes 300SL.  Racing history nuts (I think we all fall into that category) will probably remember that he was a very active sports car driver and MG dealer in the early 50s and among other things, was Pierre Levegh's co-driver at LeMans in 1955 when the most horrendous accident in racing history took place.  This led him to pursue innovations in racing and highway safety for the rest of his career.  In these shots (Photos 10, 11 and 12) he on the salt (at the age of 87) to drive the M-B 300SL owned by Bob Sirna.  There's a lot more info here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Fitch_%28racing_driver%29

Back to the Hammond story.  The old number 77 lakester turned out to be too badly damaged to repair.  So during the time that a new one was being built, Hammond bought a Modified Roadster, used the same number and proceeded to set records in the MR class.  The car still holds 4 records in the D and E engine size categories of Blown Fuel and Blown Gas Modified Roadster with speeds around 260 mph (415 kph).  D-motors are 4.27 to 5.00 liters and E-motors are 3.01 to 4.26.  Pretty good speeds for a relatively small-motored car with a body that started out as a 1927 Model T Ford.  Only a few modifications. 

More in the next post.

[RayTheRat]

Never let it be said that the Hammonds "rough it" on the salt..well, I suppose the plastic cups for the wine are a little tacky, but when many of the rest of us content to drink whatever liquid we can find (it's hot and dry out there most of the time), they do it in style.  Photo 15.

We're now at Speed Week. 2008.  The Modified Roadster has been sold and now wears number 502.  Photo 16.

But there's some new competition.  My friend, Bill "Sparky" Smith brought his low-tech lakester that he built in his garage out to the salt.  He holds the distinction of being the first lakester driver (and car) to set a record over 300 mph (482 kph) with a naturally-aspirated motor on pump gas.  That year he got awards at each of the 4 LSR venues at which he raced: Bonneville, El Mirage, Maxton NC, and the Texas Mile.  Way to go, Sparky!  Photo 17.

Seth Hammond and company didn't come unprepared, though and Sparky's record didn't last long.  The new lakester is an absolute work of art.  Photos 18-21 

They also came back in 2009 and bumped their own records up and set a couple more.  Seth's wife, Tanis not only drives the car as well, but serves as a hard working crew member, too.  Photo 22.  A couple more shots of it getting a push start off the line in photos 23 and 24.

One more part to come.

[RayTheRat]

On to 2009.  Tanis has traded her work clothes for a "Queen for a day" crown.  I believe that she'd just set a new, all-time high speed record (a little over 320 mph) in the car.  But she still cooked a BBQ dinner for the team.  Photo 25.

In 2010, the team got some advice regarding lateral stability and added an "experimental" dorsal fin.  It must have worked.  They added 3 more records that year and had 5 family members with "blue hats" (300 mph chapter of the 200 MPH Club.)  Photos 26 & 27.

And in 2011, the brought the car back with very few (if any) modifications other than tuning and gearing and added 2 more records for a total of 13 current class records (and only God knows how many times they've bumped their own.)  Photos 28 & 29. 

Tanis has the top speed in the car at 323.473 mph (520.579 kph), set at Speed Week in 2010 in the AA/FL class.  That's unlimited engine displacement on fuel, naturally aspirated.  Totally unreal.

I'm sure they'll be back in 2012...I just wonder how much more speed they can wring out of that car.  They sure don't seem to have much trouble coming up with new combinations and ways to go faster and faster.

Most of these photos are on the web server that I run on a tiny Linux-based system in my home running on a DSL line:
http://www.chevyasylum.com/Welcome.html  Click on the Land Speed Racing thumbnail (currently a photo of the "Speed Demon", holder of the fastest one-way pass, 462 mph or 743 kph); from there, things are broken down by year and event.  I'll be back in August for Speed Week (if the good Lord's willin and the creek don't rise, as the old saying goes) and we'll see what happens.

RtR

[Ultra]

I love all this salt flat stuff.  Thx for sharing.

[RayTheRat]

My pleasure.  Maybe I can do something on the Speed Demon (which started out as the "Flatfire" and then became the "Ecofire" before assuming its current moniker.)  That team was a customer of mine for the last 4 years and I have tons of photos of it.  This year I'm on sabbatical, so I won't be taking on customers, but I'll still be covering the events for landracing.com ....and (we hope) running my own car.  I just made some arrangements to get an aluminum driveshaft made and I need to order the steel pinion yoke.

Glad you enjoyed it.

RtR

[Otto Puzzell]

Gear!

[RayTheRat]

Gear!

One could also say "Fab!", I spose.  

Seriously, thanks.

[faksta]

Really, not that often you see people drinking wine, cooking BBQ, then hopping in the car and setting a new speed record. Well, these days, I mean. Like Palatov guys wrote recently, there are only two places for really private efforts on a high level left - salt flats and hillclimbing (with a reference to their Pikes Peak effort this year).

[RayTheRat]

Really, not that often you see people drinking wine, cooking BBQ, then hopping in the car and setting a new speed record. Well, these days, I mean. Like Palatov guys wrote recently, there are only two places for really private efforts on a high level left - salt flats and hillclimbing (with a reference to their Pikes Peak effort this year).

That's a pretty good description of contemporary racing.  Of course hopping in the car after a few glasses of wine isn't likely to be well-received by the race officials.  One nice thing about salt flats racing is that one can make it whatever one wants...more or less, whether it's a bit of wine and cheese in the afternoon or a quick bottle of water while working on the car.  We were too busy thrashing on the cars (several of us were sharing our pit tent) to participate in a salt flats soiree...and besides, I was trying to do photographic coverage of the event whenever I wasn't trying to race the car.  I was very fortunate to have help from some guys who had much more experience on the salt than I.

Your point about the relative "amateur" status of LSR and Pike's Peak (although I've never been to that event) is pretty accurate.  You could add "open road racing", such as the Silver State Classic, Big Bend Open Road Race and a few more ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Road_Racing ) to the list.  Imo, the reason for it is money...or lack of it.  There are no cash prizes in LSR, nor ORR (I'm not sure about PP).  And there's very little media coverage. 

One thing I like about these low profile types of racing is the fact that innovation and creativity is encouraged rather than penalized.  In the US, major racing has become "spec racer" series.  Why?  Television.  Viewers want to see close racing, not someone who's come up with a new idea blowing the doors off the competition and winning races several laps ahead of the 2nd place finisher.

Even the LMS and ALMS series are so very structured that (with one exception...diesel motors in prototypes) the cars have to fit a "cookie cutter" pattern or they won't pass tech inspection.  Ohh...I just thought of another exception: the Nissan Delta Wing LMS car.  I'll be watching that with a great deal of interest. 

In the mean time, I've got to get to work on my race car.

RtR