Last year, 1998, was the fiftieth anniversary of the annual Bonneville Speed Week time trials, held on the salt flats near Wendover Utah. It was also the tenth year that the Waddill Race Team had journeyed two thousand miles west in their quest for a land speed record in the flying mile with the "Bonneville A". The Team with owner-driver Bob Waddill, crew chief Mike Hilliard, fuel injection specialist Roger Jareo, Rick (Juice) MaGee, Ron King, and Mark Barnhart left Swartz Creek Michigan on a Wednesday morning and drove straight through to Wendover arriving early Friday morning.

The Bonneville A is a 1957 MGA with a blown fuel injected Chevy V6 engine running on gasoline. When the car was originally prepared for land speed racing it ran in class E/Blown Modified Sports with "E" indicating engine size. Two years ago we set the WLS record for E/BMS class in the standing mile at 192 mph. but a flying mile record eluded us. This year we had done modifications to the engine causing a class change to C/BMS. There were also several significant aerodynamic improvements to the MGA’s body work over last year.

We were elated when our first shakedown run right off the trailer was 228 mph, faster than the car had ever gone before. Every run we made all week was faster than the previous pass. So by Wednesday when the car qualified for a record run we were all higher than cloud nine. To set a record you first have to make a pass faster than the existing record. That’s called a qualifying run. You then have to make a return or record run and the average time of the qualifying run and the record run becomes the new record if it is faster than the existing record. Our qualifying run was late in the day so we had to put the car in an impound area where it was kept over night. We would be allowed back on the salt at 7 am Thursday morning and had to run within the hour for the record.

We had been anticipating the arrival of the MG EX255 team all week. When by Wednesday night no one had seen them yet we decided to drive over to the Wendover Airport where we heard they had rented a hangar to prepare their car When we walked in to the hangar we could tell immediately that all was not well. Sadly there had been a serious problem with the clutch The crew had worked valiantly to try to over come this problem to the point that they even removed a sink from the wall in the hanger men's room and disassembled one of the faucets to get a seal that might work in EX 255's master cylinder. But by Wednesday night they were resigned to the fact that they would not be able to run the car this year. They gave us their M.G. flag and told us to fly it over our pits.

We would have to represent M.G. this year but they plan to be back next year.

Thursday morning we were waiting with great expectations and anxiety for the officials to let us into the impound area to prepare for the record run. We got the car ready and pushed it to the starting line well before 8 am. The engine roared to life and the chief starter waved the car off. We started down the chase road beside the track watching the MGA disappear into the horizon as it followed the straight black line on the white salt.

Waiting for the time to come over the radio seemed like an eternity. Then the announcement. "WE HAVE A NEW RECORD AT 243.970MPH."

When we got to the end of the seven mile long course where the MGA had stopped we had a quick celebration. Then it was back to work. The car was taken back to impound and we had to pull a head off the engine so the officials could take measurements to verify the engine displacement, test the fuel in the sealed tank, and redo a complete tech inspection. With all that done the new record was certified and a ceremony was held to induct our driver Bob Waddill into the prestigious 200 Mile Per Hour Club.