Calm Before The Storm–SCTA’s Rod Riders Awards Banquet

Rod Authority recently attended the awards banquet for the Landspeed racing club, the Rod Riders’, which is one of eleven clubs in  SCTA’s (Southern California Timing Association) stable and we were amazed at all the innovation on the grounds. The legendary dry lake racers, the Ferguson family, headed up the event and had some very cool rods on display, including a pair of Streamliners that will be aiming for 400 mph and 500 mph marks this season.

Landspeed racer Brian Gillespie was able to claim a 2013 SCTA and Rod Riders Championship at this event, a man who amazingly emerged unscathed after a terrible wreck last year in his Honda Insight–a crash so vicious it made the National news. Gillespie’s ride is a testament to the build quality of his team’s race car, but also the safety requirements in the organization that allow racers to go super-fast, yet remain safe if something goes awry during a run.

While Gillespie is a member of the Rod Riders club, there are quite a few that cover the greater southern California area. Clubs such as the Gear Grinders, High Desert Racing, Milers, Road Runners, all are dedicated to speed and safety and you can bet members are chomping at the bit to get back to the flats to shatter this year’s records.

We say this event is the “calm before the storm” because unlike drag racers who have already started competing for their 2014 championships, the landspeed racers are now gearing up for their first event in May on El Mirage’s dry lake bed. With multiple categories and sub-classes, landspeed racing is a sport where you can see a wide array of different hot rods, from belly tanks to Lakesters and everything in between. You don’t need a V-8 either, there are all sorts of wild engine combinations competing for records at these events.

The Ferguson family, which includes three gearheads all named Don, also own a foundry near their shop in Long Beach, California, have the know-how to build some pretty wild cars, and are among the most respected in the Landspeed Racing scene. While hanging out in the engine room, everywhere you turned there was some unique, custom combination that we’d never seen in person before; Ardun Hemi cylinder heads for Flat Head Fords, custom straight six engines with massive pushrods, turbocharged Chrysler Hemis; you could tell there were some hot rod geniuses at work in there.

According to Don, the team will be going after the 500 mph mark with this incredible vehicle below, which is powered by a pair of jet engines, this season. That beast, too, was on display at the banquet and we were also thoroughly impressed with the craftsmanship of the chassis and the layout of the adrenalin-inducing machine. There are only a handful of racers (ahem, multi-millionaires) going for this incredible feat this year.