By this point, we'd met many of the racers and seen them fly by on the track. The part of it all we were still missing was seeing the racing action up close, so the next day we made our way to the starting lines to see the cars and bikes launch into their quest to reach their speed goal.
This roadster holds the record in the A and B class, and was racing with a C-class motor this year with hopes of rolling away with that record as well.
The thrill of being at the starting line was not the speed of the vehicles; in fact, they start off rather slowly and sometimes squirrelly as they work through their gears and find stability in speed. The experience at the starting line was about being mere feet away from these powerful machines, sensing the nerves of the drivers and their crews, and holding your breath for them as they disappear down the track. It really completed the picture for us.
We spent just half the day on the Salt, bid it a sad farewell and headed to Wendover to watch open drag races on an abandoned airstrip at the Wendover Airport. We expected to see more hot rods, knowing from the impromptu car show just how many were in town, but the event attracted more muscle cars and imports.
The only nostalgia racing that went on were these two old Tin Lizzies with original put-put engines. They got a laugh out of the crowd when the car in the lead slowed down and motioned for his opponent to catch up!
As we were leaving the races, we spotted a perfect background for a photoshoot, and beelined to it.
A building with perfect patina just fit right in with our preserved rides!
As we were shooting photos, a truck came flying up with flashing lights. The security guys in it wanted to know what in the world we were doing roaming freely at an active airstrip! Well, I think we were more surprised than they were! The place looked pretty deserted, but it turns out that we crossed an active runway to get to...the Enola Gay hangar. Perhaps we should have done a little research before visiting the historic Wendover Airfield... Thankfully, security was very understanding of our ignorance and invited us to visit the museum when we were finished with the cameras. We were more than happy to accept that invitation and learned a lot about the history of the place in the very small museum they have set up currently. Also on exhibit was this airplane...
...that you could go inside and even climb into the cockpit to see what it was like.
They are in the process of restoring buildings on the airfield and raising funds to eventually restore them all. It will be pretty incredible to see this WWII-era training base brought back to life.
We took our educated selves back to camp, and enjoyed some down time. Andy had a pinstriper he'd met out on the Salt come to camp and dress up the ol' GMC. These artists are so fascinating to watch!
Then, Andy and Marc worked to re-route the fuel line away from the heat of the engine in hopes of getting home without choking up every little hill. We went to bed crossing our fingers...
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