CobraRGuy
Active Member
Hi everyone,
Sad news from this year's Bonneville Speed Week. Veteran land speed record racer and long time member of team Speed Demon Racing Chris Raschke died during an initial run of their new Speed Demon III.
Following the untimely death of team owner/driver George Poteet in 2024 (not accident related) who set a one-way speed record of 481MPH in Speed Demon II, that car was destined for a museum per the wishes of George's family. Speed Demon II is the fastest piston engine car in the world and has been for years, breaking its own record multiple times.
A new car was needed, hence Speed Demon III was built. The family allowed the team to use Speed Demon II engines and drive train. Speed Demon III though, was not built from the ground up like Speed Demon II. I personally believe this to be their undoing. They bought an existing chassis and bodywork of a car built by master fabricator Tom Hanna that had never achieved even 400MPH. They took that car, adapted a much more powerful (more powerful even than Speed Demon II's 3,700hp) engine and drivetrain into it, in an attempt to exceed 500mph and own the alcohol "E motor" (my understanding is that this is the "Run what you brung" unlimited engine) class record.
I had the privilege to be a crew member of team Salt Shark (B/BGS), so I was allowed to enter the starting line area to help prep the Salt Shark, with owner/driver Tom Flattery at the wheel, for launch. On multiple occasions, Speed Demon II was in the starting area and had major portions of the bodywork off, so I was able get a real good look at what's under the skin. That is one helluva nice build:
It was later that day, or perhaps the next, that I watched Speed Demon II make a 470+ mph run. That was cool.
What I've read is that Speed Demon III veered off course and went airborne Sunday 08/03/25, at only ~270mph only half way or so down the long course (Course 1).
I speak with Tom Flattery every couple of weeks. He knows all about this stuff because he runs the Salt Shark, which is a blown gas streamliner (BGS) limited to 427 cubic inches running race gas (Speed Demon burns alcohol). Tom has mentioned that his car loses traction on the salt at around 300+ mph when the 88mm turbos really spool up and the engine's making maximum power (~1,800+ hp). This, of course, makes Tom very nervous. He also knows that he's losing speed when that happens. In engineering terms, static friction is always greater than dynamic friction, think ABS. Keep the tires from moving relative to the surface. We've talked about him trying to implement traction control using the Holley ECU, which can be done. I know he has mounted some wheel speed sensors, but I don't think he has the ECU is set up for that yet.
My suspicion is that Chris Raschke may have lost traction. Putting 3,700+ hp down to the salt is very difficult. That's more than twice what Tom's car is putting out. If Speed Demon III either didn't have traction control implemented, or it wasn't working correctly, even at only 268 mph (I think that's how fast the SCTA said he was going) that could spell disaster. Supposedly, Speed Demon III was set up to shut down the engine if more than 5 degrees of yaw was experienced. At 268 mph, 5 degrees of yaw seems like much too much to me. Tom has told us that the faster the Salt Shark goes, the more stable it feels. That is reassuring for all involved. Still, he is experiencing traction loss, so that needs to get fixed. I'm planning to visit him and his wife in the spring to help him get the traction control working (among other things).
Tom's not at Speed Week this year because when he took the car to be tuned on a hub dyno at a place in Illinois. The engine started sputtering and generally running lousy when the turbos started to spool up. The max it made was around 1,000 hp and that setup should be at 1,800-2,000 hp. We believe he has some bad valve springs because the car sat for a few years and some valves are always open. The injectors were all flow tested. We think he just needs to install a whole new set of springs and take it back to the tuner, but time ran out for that. Next year for sure. I suggested he not mention to his wife about the crash, but it was too late. He did say he wasn't going to mention it to his mom (who everybody adores, she's so sweet).
Race teams nowadays loosen all of the rocker arms at the end of the year so they can survive the off season.
An investigation by the SCTA into what caused the Speed Demon III crash is already under way.
YMMV
CobraRGuy
Sad news from this year's Bonneville Speed Week. Veteran land speed record racer and long time member of team Speed Demon Racing Chris Raschke died during an initial run of their new Speed Demon III.
Following the untimely death of team owner/driver George Poteet in 2024 (not accident related) who set a one-way speed record of 481MPH in Speed Demon II, that car was destined for a museum per the wishes of George's family. Speed Demon II is the fastest piston engine car in the world and has been for years, breaking its own record multiple times.
A new car was needed, hence Speed Demon III was built. The family allowed the team to use Speed Demon II engines and drive train. Speed Demon III though, was not built from the ground up like Speed Demon II. I personally believe this to be their undoing. They bought an existing chassis and bodywork of a car built by master fabricator Tom Hanna that had never achieved even 400MPH. They took that car, adapted a much more powerful (more powerful even than Speed Demon II's 3,700hp) engine and drivetrain into it, in an attempt to exceed 500mph and own the alcohol "E motor" (my understanding is that this is the "Run what you brung" unlimited engine) class record.
I had the privilege to be a crew member of team Salt Shark (B/BGS), so I was allowed to enter the starting line area to help prep the Salt Shark, with owner/driver Tom Flattery at the wheel, for launch. On multiple occasions, Speed Demon II was in the starting area and had major portions of the bodywork off, so I was able get a real good look at what's under the skin. That is one helluva nice build:
It was later that day, or perhaps the next, that I watched Speed Demon II make a 470+ mph run. That was cool.
What I've read is that Speed Demon III veered off course and went airborne Sunday 08/03/25, at only ~270mph only half way or so down the long course (Course 1).
I speak with Tom Flattery every couple of weeks. He knows all about this stuff because he runs the Salt Shark, which is a blown gas streamliner (BGS) limited to 427 cubic inches running race gas (Speed Demon burns alcohol). Tom has mentioned that his car loses traction on the salt at around 300+ mph when the 88mm turbos really spool up and the engine's making maximum power (~1,800+ hp). This, of course, makes Tom very nervous. He also knows that he's losing speed when that happens. In engineering terms, static friction is always greater than dynamic friction, think ABS. Keep the tires from moving relative to the surface. We've talked about him trying to implement traction control using the Holley ECU, which can be done. I know he has mounted some wheel speed sensors, but I don't think he has the ECU is set up for that yet.
My suspicion is that Chris Raschke may have lost traction. Putting 3,700+ hp down to the salt is very difficult. That's more than twice what Tom's car is putting out. If Speed Demon III either didn't have traction control implemented, or it wasn't working correctly, even at only 268 mph (I think that's how fast the SCTA said he was going) that could spell disaster. Supposedly, Speed Demon III was set up to shut down the engine if more than 5 degrees of yaw was experienced. At 268 mph, 5 degrees of yaw seems like much too much to me. Tom has told us that the faster the Salt Shark goes, the more stable it feels. That is reassuring for all involved. Still, he is experiencing traction loss, so that needs to get fixed. I'm planning to visit him and his wife in the spring to help him get the traction control working (among other things).
Tom's not at Speed Week this year because when he took the car to be tuned on a hub dyno at a place in Illinois. The engine started sputtering and generally running lousy when the turbos started to spool up. The max it made was around 1,000 hp and that setup should be at 1,800-2,000 hp. We believe he has some bad valve springs because the car sat for a few years and some valves are always open. The injectors were all flow tested. We think he just needs to install a whole new set of springs and take it back to the tuner, but time ran out for that. Next year for sure. I suggested he not mention to his wife about the crash, but it was too late. He did say he wasn't going to mention it to his mom (who everybody adores, she's so sweet).
Race teams nowadays loosen all of the rocker arms at the end of the year so they can survive the off season.
An investigation by the SCTA into what caused the Speed Demon III crash is already under way.
YMMV
CobraRGuy
