The Red Baron competed unstreamlined – without it’s fairing – for the final event of the 2021 season in the Modified, Pushrod Blown Gas (M-PBG) class. Smitty and The Red Baron had already set the record in this class at 108.476 mph in May 2018. The goal was to break the record, hopefully going around 110 mph given my weight advantage.
The Red Baron had the same engine tune as October with a higher compression ratio and advanced timing since the cylinder head temps had remained well below 400 oF.
We completed technical inspection on Friday, then missed the first day of running on Saturday to attend a wedding. On Sunday, we were in the first group of vehicles, which is great for the cool, early morning air. Our warm-up sequence was a little out-of-norm being in the first group and due to course holds from an unfortunate trifecta of issues (crash, engine blowup, fire) that occurred nearly back-to-back. Everyone is okay.
We started up The Red Baron at the start line, idled for a minute to get temperature into the engine and oil, and set off down the course to a new record of 108.645 mph!
