Brent Hajek's hopes of setting a land speed record with an ethanol-fueled car were crushed along with his car's suspension when former NASCAR driver Bill Elliott slammed into the wall of Turn 2 at Talladega Motor Speedway.
The accident came when Elliott cut a tire and spun on the third lap of a shakedown run for the Mustang FR500C built by Hajek Motorsports. Hajek, an Oklahoma corn farmer, had hoped to set a new closed course world speed record. Elliott set a record for an E-85-burning car when he hit 174.206 mph, but that is well short of the 212.809 mph record he achieved 22 years ago at Talladega in an '87 Ford Thunderbird.
Nevertheless, some still consider Hajek's Mustang one of the fastest on the planet. It's got a supercharged 5.4-liter engine capable of 1,000 horsepower, and it did over 252 mph at Bonneville last summer. Elliott damaged it enough to call off last weekend's run for the record, but Hajek isn't giving up.
"We'll be back out there next fall," he said. "Talladega's temperature is always a huge factor during the summer. When it gets hot, there is less grip on the track, and conditions need to be ideal for a record run. Don't worry. We're gonna stay after this thing until we get it."
"It was one of those things where you get that shake and you know what is coming, but there is nothing you can do about it," Elliott said about Friday's crash. "Even in just the short time I spent in the car, I already see some things that we can do better. Brent Hajek and all the guys at their shop have done a really good job. They will get this thing back to Oklahoma and get it beat back out."
Hajek Motorsports has been been operating out of Ames, Okla., for the better part of three decades. Over the years, Brent Hajek has amassed an impressive collection of historic Ford race cars, including Elliott's record-setting '87 Ford Thunderbird. Despite his long standing relationship with Ford, Hajek said the motor company didn't become a part of his quest to put more Mustangs in the record books until he decided to use E-85.
At that point, Ford supplied the parts he'd need to make his run at Bonneville to mark the 30th anniversary of a record run Mickey Thompson made in a 1969 Mach One. The FR500C posted an initial run of over 252 mph, but a mechanical failure didn't allow the team to make the validation run. If a validation run had been completed, the production Mustang would have destroyed the E-85 land speed record of 172.680 mph set by a group of engineering students in 2007 with a nitrous-oxide assisted Chevrolet Cobalt SS.
Hajek, who also owns an oil and gas company, says he has no involvement in the ethanol industry. However, he is a huge proponent of corn-based fuel and considers his FR500C as "green vehicle" in terms of technological advancement.
"It's amazing how these corn plants can perform," he said. "We used two gallons of E-85 per 7-mile run going 200-plus miles per hour. Compare that to a drag racer which uses a gallon of gasoline per quarter-mile run. We can do this right here in America. Corn farmers are nowhere near full capacity, and this stuff can run."
Photos: Patrick Quirk / Hajek Motorsports
