The view from my seat in the push truck for car #929 G/PRO Cosworth Vega By Tom Gerardi It is Saturday morning and it is time to load up for the Sunday races at El Mirage. Wash the truck, get out the table and chairs, load the push bar, pack the cooler, grab some tools, and don't forget the sunscreen. Then head on down highway 14 toward El Mirage. I pull into El Mirage around 5:30 PM and stop by the MC inspection trailer where I see Tom Evans. I had brought a MC frame with me and asked Tom if he could identify it. Tom suggested I leave the frame there for everyone to see, and maybe someone would be able to identify it. I said thanks and went over to our Pit area, where Frank Sloan had already set up camp. I unload my truck, put the push bar on and got the truck ready for Sunday. Once everything is done, I see Drew Pietch not far away with a new rear engine modified roadster he and Logan Davis are building. So Frank and I walk over and talk to Drew and admire the new car. Next Tom Evans and Alan Fogladini come over, and we all talk about Drew and Logan's new car. Then we all head over to the Santa Barbara Boys Pit. Over there we see Fast Freddy., Larry and Mark Johnson, JD Tone, Don Ferguson III. While talking with the group, Mike Waters dropped by to say Hi. Just as it gets dusk Freddy decides to light off his lakester. The lakester fires, sounds great, and we even got a little light show out of the headers. After that it was time to eat dinner. After dinner Frank and I walk down to Mike Manghelli and John Romero's pit. We have a discussion about our Bonneville project code name "Express", and all is well. We wish both Mike and John good luck with their car and truck and leave to go back to our pit for the night. Sunday morning I wake up about 5:45 am go outside and here comes Shawn Buchele driving up. Asks if he and Dave Thomas can pit next to us, I said sure plenty of room. Shawn informs me Dave is on his way. In the mean time we eat breakfast and start to get the car ready to run. About that time Dave and Gary Thomas show up, along with Phil Dally and Bruce Blackstone, and they start to unload the truck they will be running. Our starting number is 42 so we don't have much time to get ready before we go get into line. After the drivers meeting Don Smith (who is one of our pit crew) shows up and it is time to push the Vega over into the pre stage area. We get to pre stage and only have to wait about 10 minutes until we are allowed to get into the staging lanes. While in the staging lanes we adjust the timing and fuel mixture, and then wait our turn to run. In the staging lanes I look over and see Keith Turk, who I have talked to but never met. So I run over and introduce myself, talk to for about 30 seconds, and then run back to the Vega. Now it is time to make our run, I ask Wes how the course is and he says fantastic. So I tell Frank the course is good, no soft spots. Wes comes and tightens Frank's seat belts. I put up the safety net, Don starts the data recorder, and then we both get into the truck for the push off. Wes gives Frank the signal to put down his visor, then looks at us and gives us the OK to push off. I push Frank up to about 25mph then he drives off of the push truck. We drive toward the exit for the push vehicles, and I notice a flag on a pole is just limp, no breeze at all, no El Mirage HP to help us out. Frank clears the traps and we hear a speed of 134.440. We are disappointed, as this speed is about 2mph slower than we ran last meet. Just as we are getting ready to push back to the Pits, Bob Duncan in the luv truck is completing his run and pulling up close to us. So I walk back to see if Bob is OK and wait for him to get out of the luv truck before we leave. We get back to the pits to see what our data recorder says only to be disappointed that it only graphed the RPM and not anything else. As far as we are concerned this was a wasted run. Back to the drawing board for what we will do tuning wise for the next run. We have plenty of time to decide because a lot of cars showed up to race this meet, and it will be a couple of hours before they call second round. In the mean time I see some tires for sale that I can use on my Roadster. I walk over and talk with the person who owns them and we agree on a price, so now I have 4 newer tires for my Roadster. I take the tires back to our pits and on the way Earl Wooden stops me and tells me to shave the front tires if I plan on going over 250mph. Thanks Earl. When I get back to the pits Gene Winfield shows up. Gene is having problems with his throttle linkage and asks if we can help Gene has a push type cable and we use pull type cables, so we are no help to Gene. Sorry Gene. Then Dave and Shawn pull into the pits from making a run in their truck, and I see Jason Arana and his Girlfriend with Shawn and Dave. They are also disappointed in the run they made. Now it is time for lunch. Shawn and Dave's group brought back some food and asked if they could use our table and chairs, we said sure, so they were able to have a nice lunch in the shade. I hear a call for numbers 1-25 to the lanes. I tell Frank and Don it is time we head over to the pre stage area. We push over and wait about 10 minutes and then get into line. We make some more adjustments to the car in hope of running faster than our first run. This time we are not so lucky. We are about 3 cars away from making a run and the meet is called. A few cars ahead of us spun, and it was determined the course was not safe anymore. So we push back to the pits, and finally get a chance to relax, and have a cold one. While we are sitting and relaxing Dave, Shawn, Jason, Gary, and a friend come over and sit down and talk. After a while they decide to load up and go home. Then it was time for Don Smith to go also, thanks Don for all of you help. Finally at 4:00 Frank and I start picking up and about 5:00 we left the Lake bed. Even though we were disappointed in our run, we got to see a lot of friends, and had an enjoyable weekend.