I forgot to mention that the liner was put back into line on day three. This was about 3:30 in the afternoon. We had started to work our way up in line and then mother nature took charge of the meet. A rain cloud was coming in fast, as they always do at Bonneville. There was wind. So much wind that around 5:00 p.m. the officials shut down the track for the day. We left the liner in line and headed back to our pits.

Day four we were on the road going to the salt by 0600. The officials were checking out the damage caused by the wind and rain the night before. The damage was light. A few marker cones were in the next county, but nothing serious. They opened the track to the contestants around 0730. Back in the pits we checked things out. Everything was O.K., so it was back to the line. We hooked up the liner to Steve's Blazer and commenced the wait for the track to dry out. It was windy so this only took about an hour and a half. The line began to move, and three hours later we were finally back to the starting line.

The EZ Hook liner was about five spots in front of us during the long wait. While working your way up to the front there isn't much to do but look at other salt racer's machines. Some very impressive and some not so impressive. The EZ Hook machine is one of the very impressive ones. Anyway I spoke to Sam and said I had gotten the word that he was not going to make this meet and that he would instead try for the record at the Bub Meet. He said that had been the original plan, but he didn't want to take the chance of a rainout of the Bub Meet. He asked where I was and said that he had heard that I had built a new streamliner for 2004, and that he'd like to see it. We jumped into the pickup and drove about 1/4 mile back to where Black Lightning was waiting her turn. Sam commented that she looked real good and that he thought his EZ Hook was small, but Black Lightning was even smaller. I took this as a compliment as Sam knows as well as I do that, "small goes fast".

Sam was in front of us like I said. He made his run 334 and change. Then came over the loud speaker, "The fastest recorded speed a motorcycle's run in history has been made today!" I must say I was glad to have been there to witness the flawless and fastest run ever. Congratulations Sam!

It was now our turn, so everything was made ready for the run. I was doing the signaling to the rider this time and Hartmut was the starter man. The signal was given and Hartmut fired the liner. It really sounded good. The tow up was made; the liner was dropped off at 60 mph. We peeled off to the right of the track and Black Lightning accelerated in a rush past us and in the blink of an eye was nothing but a small dot heading for the horizon between two black lines. We had the C.B. on the tower channel, and in a matter of seconds the word came over the C.B. that 785 aborted at the two mile marker. We were ordered to pick up our vehicle and get it off the track as soon as possible.