This Week in Ford Racing
October 14, 2009
In just one week, Brent Hajek and Hajek Motorsports set five new records
for E-85 powered vehicles, including a land speed record in a 2010 Mustang
at the famed Bonneville Salt Flats. Hajek Motorsports also took an E-85
Mustang to Talladega earlier this year where Bill Elliott set a closed
course speed record for an E-85 powered car.
BRENT HAJEK - Owner, Hajek Motorsports
HOW HAS THE PAST WEEK BEEN FOR
HAJEK MOTORSPORTS? "This has been a great week for Hajek Motorsports and
Ford Mustang racing. We have got five records in seven days with Mustangs.
I was on the way to Bonneville and the guys called from Kearney, Nebraska,
at an NHRA event up there. They went up, and set both ends of the NHRA A
Stock Automatic Record - 9.73 (seconds) at 138.42 (mph) in the quartermile,
and they also set up the A Stock eighth mile, both ET and mile-an-hour
record. The other Cobra Jet went the quickest and fastest time in the
history of Stock Eliminator - it went a 9.44 at a 142.84. In Bonneville,
qualifying ended at noon Sunday. We ran the course last and we broke the
record, but we had to turn right back around immediately and back it up and
run within one percent. On the back-up run, our combined average times were
255.76 for a mile an hour, and our exit speed on that last run was 258.l4
miles an hour. We were the last ones down the track, the last car to get to
run at Bonneville this year."
YOU RAN A 252 THERE LAST YEAR BUT YOU WEREN'T ABLE TO GET THAT VALIDATED.
ARE YOU HAPPY THAT YOU CAN FINALLY GET THAT ACCOMPLISHED? "I'm so happy.
We came back 45 minutes later to back that record up and get it validated.
That was way cool."
YOU HOLD THE LANDSPEED RECORD FOR AN E-85 VEHICLE? IS THAT CORRECT?
"There's no other faster E-85 production vehicle out there. The class they
put us in was fuel-altered. The cars we were competing with were nitro-
methane. We were running the E-85."
WHEN DID YOU BEGIN WORKING ON THIS BONNEVILLE PROGRAM? "We really didn't
get the 2010 Mustang body and start working on the thing in earnest until
June. You can go to the website that is set up that shows step by step and
the date and times. From the time that thing was just a bare body shell of
a 2010 Mustang to the land speed record holder the first time out was only
100 and some days. That's pretty cool."
AS SOON AS YOU WERE DONE ATTEMPTING THE E-85 TRACK RECORD WITH BILL
ELLIOTT, YOU STARTED WORKING ON THIS? "We worked with the people at Ford
Plastics to build our soy bean fenders and all that stuff. We thought that
would be cool. That took a little more time to get the design and aero and
wind tunnel information and get it to the body panels made out of soy with
the proper aero dynamic characteristics, but they got it done."
AFTER YOU RAN THE INITIAL 255, YOU ONLY HAD 45 MINUTES TO RUN THE
VALIDATION? "Yes, we had to immediately come back because we were the last
car to qualify and the last one to be able to back-up the record. Everyone
else failed at their attempt, so we had to turn right back around and go
immediately back to the starting line and run it again, and that thing just
kept getting better every run."
WAS THAT THE LONGEST 45 MINUTES OF YOUR LIFE? "Yes, it was. We got calls
back from all the different Ford Racing teams. Vaughn Gittin, Jr., called
and was joking with me. You know that 2010 Mustang commercial where it
shows different things you can do in your 2010 Mustang? Well, one of them
says go out and destroy a land speed record, and we've done that. Then one
of them says go out and drift with Japan's best, and that's Vaughn's deal,
so I said, 'We're going to get to be in a commercial with you now,
Vaughn.'"
YOU STARTED THE YEAR IN POMONA WINNING THE SEASON OPENING WINTERNATIONALS
IN THE COBRA JET'S DEBUT.. "Yes, and from there we went over to Phoenix and
turned around and ran the fastest dialed-in run in the history of Stock
Eliminator, and then we went to Dallas and ran the first 140 mile-an-hour
pass in the history of Stock Eliminator. We were the number one qualifier
in Denver, and in Indianapolis at U.S. Nationals, we beat the Dodge
Challenger in the first Challenger versus Cobra Jet match ever. We were
number one and two in Kearney, Nebraska. There were about six different
places where our cars had low ET, top speed and were number one qualifier;
some of them, we were just talking about. Some of the different magazine
writers told us that the '08 Cobra Jet launch was arguably the best, most
successful drag product launch in the history of Motown, with everything
that has been accomplished by these cars in such a short period of time.
We're pretty proud of that, working with Ford and making that happen."
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO FOR 2010? ANY NEW CHALLENGES? "We've got plenty
of challenges, we've got some pretty cool stuff lined up. We're looking at
some more 'green' things to do. As we're doing more with soy, and more and
more people are learning about what we do with our bio connections, we're
learning more about how we can actually apply all of that to racing, and
how much that can actually go into these production vehicles. We're trying
to get a little bit greener and a little bit meaner."
-credit: ford racing
