Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson was on the fast track this week -- literally.
Taking a break from paperwork and meetings, Anderson donned protective gear and went for a spin Wednesday in a vintage race car, one of 120 that will be competing in a transcontinental race rally this month.Anderson probably won't be quitting his day job anytime soon. Tom McRae, owner of the Don Hulbert Special, also known as the Granatelli Rocket Car, did the driving.
Rocky in a rocket car. Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?
McRae is the founder of The History Channel Great Race in which racers travel 4,000 miles from Boston to Sacramento, stopping at more than 40 cities along the way. Salt Lake City's turn will come June 21.
The cars in the race, coming from around the globe, are valued at nearly $3 million. Racers will compete for a purse of $275,000, making it the richest vintage car event.
The car that Anderson rode in has a colorful history of its own. Built in 1934 for the Indianapolis 500, the exotic aluminum body featured an 18-inch dorsal fin stabilizer, which caused a sensation in racing circles. Owner Don Hulbert, a Chicago Ford dealer, required the car to look somewhat like a Ford, hence the 1934 Ford grill in the front, Ford emblems and a Ford drive train.
Unfortunately, the 220-cubic-inch flathead V-8 was not competitive with the Offenhauser engines that ruled Indy at the time, and the car was eventually retired.
But its glory days were not over. In 1946, the Granatelli brothers, who had purchased the car, fitted the tail with eight JATO rockets. Twenty-two-year-old Andy Granatelli, who had never raced, toured the Midwest dirt track circuit that summer billed as "Antonio the Great," the famed Italian speed ace.
Coming out of turn four, "Antonio" would fire the rockets -- in stages to avoid uncontrollable speeds -- creating so much noise, smoke and dust that no one could even see the car, much less determine his speed. Thus, confident in the lack of verifiable evidence, track hucksters could claim speeds of "up to 650 miles per hour."
Anderson's ride wasn't that dramatic, but it certainly was a change from the normal office routine.
"He put on his hat and his Snoopy goggles and grinned from ear to ear and had a great time," said Gallivan Plaza program supervisor Julie Brown.
E-MAIL: alan@desnews.com