George Poteet and the crew of the Speed Demon Streamliner are comfortable going fast and setting records.

They continued that tradition by smashing the record for fastest piston-powered, wheel-driven car with a stunning average speed of 470.015 mph during land-speed runs Aug. 13 at the Bonneville Salt Flats. That easily eclipsed Danny Thompson’s previous record of 448.747 mph aboard the Challenger II AA Fuel Streamliner in 2018.

Erasing Thompson’s record was a long-standing goal for 72-year-old Poteet, the driver and owner of the Speed Demon.

“Every time I would hang up the phone with George when we had a conversation during the year, the last part of the sentence was, ‘Hey Steve, I need a record over 450,’” said Steve Watt, team manager and crew chief. “I said, ‘OK boss, I’ve got you.’”

The road to the speed record was far from easy as the team had to overcome multiple hurdles along the way.

Utilizing a big-block Chevrolet engine that produces 3,000 horsepower, the team started its journey toward the record Aug. 8. The car made three runs down the Salt Flats, with the third run the fastest, registering a 447-mph speed at the five-mile mark.

However, when the crew arrived to retrieve the car, it discovered a mechanical failure had caused a fire.

“We actually burned a piston. It actually pressurized the crank case and blew the oil out of the back of the valve cover and caught fire and burned the wiring harness completely off the car,” Watt explained.

After assessing the damage, the team made repairs and moved forward with the primary engine. The team’s wiring specialist, Greg Pyles, worked to rebuild the wiring harness while ARP’s Chris Raschke rebuilt the big-block engine.

The team considered putting an A class engine in the car to continue making runs, but decided instead to wait on the big-block AA engine in order to chase the bigger record. Classes are based on the size of the engine in cubic inches, with AA designated for engines 501 cubic inches or larger.

“We were going to put the A motor in it but then decided, no, let’s wait for the big-block because we really, really wanted that AA record,” Watt said.

After encountering more mechanical gremlins, Speed Demon finally completed a qualifying run on Aug. 10, sending the car to impound in advance of their attempt to break the AA class record.

The next morning, the team backed up their qualifying record and set the AA record with a two-way average speed of439.246 mph. As a result of the record run, Poteet and the Speed Demon team owned records in the AA, A, B, C, D and F classes.

Poteet and the Speed Demon team weren’t finished.

Determined to top Thompson’s piston-powered record, the team went back to work and completed a qualifying run on Aug. 12 with an average speed of 469.298 mph, which sent them back to impound for a run at the piston-powered record.

Click below to continue reading.