County man resumes pursuit of record
BONNEVILLE, Utah — Rob Freyvogel is back on track to race his car at more than 400 mph.
Freyvogel of Butler Township will compete at the Southern California Timing Association's 69th annual Speed Week at the Bonneville Salt Flats.
“I would definitely like to be over 400 mph, but at this stage right now, I'm happy to just go a little bit faster than we did last year,” Freyvogel said. “As long as we go a little faster than we did (the previous year) we'll eventually break that record.”
The record in the Double AA/Blown Fuel Streamliner class is 417 mph, set by Tom Burkland, who helped Freyvogel and Brandon Barnhart of Harmony design their vehicle.
The car is called the Carbiliner. It is 28 feet long, 3,000 pounds and has a 2,600-horsepower engine.
Safety inspections for vehicles are Friday, and racing will run from Saturday through Aug. 18.
Last year, technical and mechanical issues with the Carbiliner kept Freyvogel and his team from breaking the Blown Gas Streamliner class record, which is 348 mph.
The Carbiliner reached speeds of 369 mph and 363 mph. However, the effort must consist of back-to-back record-setting runs, and technical difficulties kept that from happening.
This year, Freyvogel's strategy was to switch classes from gasoline to methanol. He explained that an engine requires 2 to 3 times as much methanol as it would gasoline to run, which leads to heat evaporation.
“We should not be fighting any overheating issues,” Freyvogel said.
However, the Blown Fuel Streamliner class record is 68 mph higher than the Blown Gas Streamliner class record, so Freyvogel and his team have been working for months to prevent vehicle breakdowns.
Freyvogel said the engine management system was changed to be more inclusive, while last year the Carbiliner used multiple systems to perform various jobs.
Freyvogel estimated there are five or six participants, including the Carbiliner team, who are capable of breaking the record in the Blown Fuel Streamliner class. There are about 450 entrants at Speed Week.
There is no limit on how many times a team can race, and Freyvogel estimated that the Carbiliner will race one or two times per day throughout Speed Week.
The team is expecting to benefit from improved terrain conditions compared to last year.
“The salt is a little bit better than last year,” Freyvogel said. “It's not great, but it's better than last year. It looks like the weather is going to cooperate. I'm feeling pretty good about our chances.”
