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Joining Jeff Thompson and Pete Lane in the Blind Abilities studio once again today is Dan Parker. This is Dan’s third visit to the Blind Abilities studio, this time to share his ultimate achievement: winning the Guinness world land-speed record for a car with a blind folded driver. Dan tells his most recent, remarkable story about how he designed and built a state of the art race car which he took to Spaceport America, in southern New Mexico, at the end of March and proceeded to drive the vehicle at a World record speed averaging 211 mph.
Dan speaks of his numerous grueling hours, days and months raising attention, funding, and practicing for this event, learning to use a sophisticated audio guidance system to help him stay on track along the runway, his purchase of a 1994 mustang to use as a practice vehicle to increase his dry runs both at home in Alabama as well as at the space center, and his grueling schedule counting down the final days and hours ultimately culminating on March 31, 2022, precisely 10 years from the day of his devastating drag racing accident in which he suffered a traumatic brain injury and ultimately his total blindness. March 31 was also the day and 2015 when Dan graduated from the Louisiana Center for the blind, making this a profound and bitter-sweet anniversary of memories representing significant importance throughout his life.
Since his horrific crash in 2012, Dan has worked in a number of jobs, including teaching high school machine shop, which he ultimately had to leave due to his traumatic brain injuries, at which time he took up spinning pens in his wood shop. He eventually found success with this and now sells hand milled custom crafted pens on his web site:
www.TheBlindMachinist.com.
Dan also shares how he was so fortunate as to get married, nowhere other than on The Steve Harvey Show a few short years ago. Dan gets into his partnership with Cruise, the autonomous car fleet owner, who with the NFB have supported Dan on his quest for the record and have provided his audible navigational system with whom he conquered the track at the Spaceport last month.
You must take time out of your busy day to listen to this important interview with an impressive individual, on a mission to show his advocacy for the blindness community through actions rather than words, fulfilling his life-motto: “you can make excuses, or make it happen”
In this podcast we offer a special “Bonus Segment” containing additional questions about Dan’s race car, the track, Guinness record rules and lots of other details to enhance the Dan Parker experience!
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Full Transcript
Dan:
I am not necessarily an attention-getter, but I’m who I was before. So I’m just learning how to do it blind.
Pete:
Dreams and ambitions come in many different sizes, shapes and forms.
Dan
I totally surprised her, she had no idea.
Pete:
Dan Parker has had all of those dreams and achieved most of those ambitions.
Dan:
It’s 200 miles an hour. You’re going a football field a second, so there’s no room for error.
Pete:
Meet Dan Parker, owner of the Guinness world land speed record for fastest speed ever achieved by a driver wearing a blindfold. Of course, Dan didn’t need a blindfold.
Dan:
The other 99% of me knows that this success is far larger than Dan Parker. This is for the whole blind community, for us to educate deciding where our capabilities are and to let them know if we have an accessible world, we can compete by our sighted peers, whether it’s the classroom or the workplace or the racetrack.
Pete:
Today, Dan joins Jeff Thompson and Pete Lane, one more time in the Blind Abilities studio to talk about his world record. And today we have bonus material for more detailed behind the scenes.
Dan:
If I put that turbo 400 in there, I had to do everything possible to eliminate weak points and the two weak points were the oil system and the transmission. You know, we’re gonna continue this evolution of what we’re doing and if the opportunity comes up again we’re gonna race again.
Pete:
So now please welcome Jeff and Pete and our special guest, Dan Parker.
Dan:
License plate of my ‘94 ‘vette is TST DUMY.
Jeff:
Welcome to Blind Abilities. I’m Jeff Thompson, and with me in the studio is Pete Lane. How you doing Pete?
Pete:
Hey, Jeffrey, how you doing today?
Jeff:
Good. I hope Dan Parker can slow down just a little bit to come on into Blind Abilities and celebrate his accomplishments over the last 10 years, especially the last four and a half years. Yeah, it’s really exciting. 212 miles per hour.
Pete:
Yeah, it’s really unbelievable.
Jeff:
Well, it is believable, ‘cause I sat on the internet. It used to be TV, but I saw it on the internet, and Dan Parker, thank you so much for coming into Blind Abilities and sharing a little bit about your excitement with us.
Dan:
Oh, thank you so much. And thank you for inviting me. I’m glad to be here today to share my story.
Pete:
We’re glad you’re here, Dan. The pleasure is all ours.
Jeff:
So your Corvette, I took a piece of paper and I drew with a crayon, just a streak. Going from left to right. And I said, that’s my picture of Dan Parker. ‘Cause that’s what it would probably look like at 212 miles an hour.
Dan:
Yeah. I’ve listened to the audio from the side and man, that thing sounded good when she’s humming down through over 200 miles an hour. I know it had to look good. Originally the car was red. So now we have it wrapped white with all of the National Federation of the Blind branding and Cruise and most sponsors names. It has what’s called moondiscs. So moondiscs are like a smooth hubcap that you put on, and it makes it more aerodynamic. So they’re spun aluminum. It’s got moondiscs on too. Everybody says it looks really cool with the moondisc on it.
Jeff:
Oh, wow.
Pete:
No kidding. That’s amazing.
Jeff:
It was really exciting to have you on back in the day, when you were racing on your motorcycle across the sand dunes, and March 31st is the day that, you know, a tragedy hit and you basically lost your eyesight, but then March 31st, seven years ago, you graduated from Louisiana Center for the Blind and this record, March 31st, once again, you broke the Guinness book of world records.
Dan:
Yeah. It really turned out to be a significant day. Originally, you know, it wasn’t supposed to set the record on that day. We were scheduled to attempt it last November, and then that’s when Delta really ramped up. And so we called it off, I think in September, ‘cause it just didn’t look good and there’s a crazy amount of logistics to go into something like this. So the spaceport told us that they prefer us to rent, whenever we do rent it, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. And so when we rescheduled for the spring, we looked at the weather history typical for January and February that, you know, snow and rain and cold. So we said, well, end of March started looking better. And it came up March 31st was a Thursday, which would be the last day of the week. So I said, well, if it works out that way, and it ended up being exactly 10 years day of the wreck I set the Guinness record, it was amazing.
Pete:
Yeah. That’s a huge coincidence. So obviously that date means a lot to you. March 31st. You said the spaceport, fill in our listeners. Where was the record set? What kind of preparation did you employ to get that thing going with Guinness and everything?
Dan:
The spaceport is in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. It’s a pretty much a brand new facility that they built. There’s 18,000 acres. There’s two launch facilities, there are vertical launch facilities, rockets move vertical. Then there’s the horizontal and that’s where Richard Branson has Virgin Galactic. You know, it’s the first private- people can pay to go out space. They’d launched that probably about six months ago. Not even that long. Anyway, the dashboard it’s based out of, it’s a 12,000 foot runway, 200 feet wide. And so that’s where I raced back in 2020 with east coast time association. And that’s where I filmed the episode of Jay Leno’s Garage [unintelligible] that was when COVID hit. So everything has just been sitting still. So, fall of 2020, President Riccobono reached out to me because 2021 was going to be the 10 year anniversary of the blind driver challenge, where, you know, NFB collaborated with Virginia Tech and they built the car that President Riccobono drove at Daytona Motor Speedway, and so they wanted to do something for the 10 year anniversary. So we worked on that, got everything together. And then, like I said, we were supposed to do it in the fall of ‘21. And then the COVID hits. We had to postpone it to 2022.
Jeff:
Dan, accomplishments. I mean, over the last 10 years, there’s been quite a few. First of all, accepting your blindness, going to the Louisiana Center for the Blind. You’re turning pens. You’re working in your own shop, losing friends, gaining friends. All different circumstances, teaching, you’ve never stopped. And yet all this time, your goal, one of your biggest goals, was to set that record, but tell us a little bit about what it is like- some of these other accomplishments seem to be just as big as the speed record.
Dan:
Yeah. I’ve been blessed, you know, as we all know, the unemployment rate for the blind is excessive and I’ve had several good jobs. I’ve purchased a speed shop. I worked at a bicycle shop, put together new bikes. Then I was hired as a part-time para-pro teaching machine shop at a local high school in the regular side of the high school, which was a huge accomplishment. You know, I sadly had to quit because you know, my blindness is, you know, that’s not my worst injury from the wreck, it’s my traumatic brain injury. And so the stress and the way the schedule worked out, was just really causing me a lot of headaches. I had to quit teaching at school, stay home when I have bad days and work when I can, you know, when I have good day. And so I started teaching the kids ‘cause I learned woodshop at LCB, you know, I graduated, came home, made a connection with Ray Wright in Utah, and he on the phone taught me how to turn pens. So then I wanted the kids at school to have something they could keep. So we started making pens in school, out of aluminum. So by the time I quit, I had some extra pen kits here when I did the wood and I made like 10 pens and I just went on Facebook. I said, I’m going to send these to my sponsors, you know, as a thank you. And if anybody would like to make a donation, you know, you might say 50 bucks, I’ll send you a pen. Well, the next morning we had $600 in donations towards the car, it blew me away. So I really started ramping up my website, the blind machinist, and stepping my game up on making the custom aluminum pen. And at that point I came up with my second design called my executive, so I have a slim, which is what I started with, and executive, and this has got some really intricate machining work and I get the parts terra-coated, and I hand-assemble all the pens here in my shop. Well, then COVID hit. I wanted a 100% made in America pen, which is a rare item. So I came up with one, made in America, the only parts I do not make 100% from scratch are the ink cartridge, the spring and a tiny Allen bolt, for the bolt action mechanism to make the ink cartridge eject, and retract, and they’re expensive, the dowels become a little base that’s all custom-made, it’s got two verticals that are notched and the pen [unintelligible] that notch, and it says “This pen was 100% designed and hand machined by Dan Parker, the blind machinist.” And in quotation marks my motto, “You can make excuses or make it happen.” And so I’m blessed to sell those. And I have an Etsy store and a lot of things that society typically wouldn’t think that the blind would be capable of. You know, I do them- I’m not necessarily an attention-getter, but I’m just who I was before. So I’m just going to have to learn how to do it blind. You know, it’s nothing really crazy to me. It’s just a lot of blind people do it, we just do what’s normal to us. That’s why I do, I do my shopping, [unintelligible] machine.
Pete:
I believe I have seen you on every TV channel made to man. Particularly recently, including CBS news. I also remember you introducing your new wife. Tell us a little bit about that.
Dan:
Yes. So I was a branding ambassador for OrCam for a while and the opportunity came up to go on the Steve Harvey Show. Now I had been planning on proposing to Jennifer and I told OrCam, I said, I think I might have something really cool.
Steve Harvey:
Whenever you’re ready, go ahead.
Dan:
Jennifer, it just announced Jennifer. It has facial recognition-
Steve Harvey:
By you looking at her?
Dan:
By me looking at her.
Steve Harvey:
I heard that, did y’all hear that?
Dan:
It’s facial recognition. Okay? So now I’m going to read from a text.
OrCam:
I came home, beaten up, broken and blind at my darkest moments. There has always been one person by my side. No matter how much I would try to push her away, she would not leave. And she is here today. My rock, my best friend, the love of my life, Jennifer.
Dan:
Jennifer, you’ve been there for me through my darkest days. Without you I would not be here and I want to share the rest of my life. Will you be my wife?
Jennifer:
Yes I will.
Steve Harvey:
Congratulations to both of you, man. That’s a heck of a story! That’s a great story…
Dan:
So, [unintelligible]. I totally surprised her, she had no idea it was coming, and so I proposed to Jennifer on the Steve Harvey show. So if anybody, they can just go to YouTube and search Steve Harvey blind man proposes. A little warning, you might get you some tissues. ‘Cause most everybody’s allergies act up when they view the show, you know, me and our lady.
Pete:
Allergies, right.
Dan:
Yeah, allergies, and then again, COVID, we were supposed to get married in April of 2020 and COVID hit and everything else. So we still have not gotten married. We’re going to get married this year. Other reasons, some family members’ health and everything. So it’s going to work out. We’re going to get married this year. Jennifer was with me when I had my accident in 2012, that caused my blindness and, you know, she’s obviously been one of my biggest supporters and been there every moment, so that’s just paperwork to me. I consider us married anyway, so it’s a blessing.
Jeff:
You talk about supporters, you’ve been working with Cruise and that’s basically the navigation, I believe. Can you tell us a little bit of how that came about and how it works for you sitting in the driver’s seat?
Dan:
Yeah, so Cruise is basically one of the two top Thomas car companies. They’re now owned, I think 80% by GM and they have the first one or two licenses for a fully autonomous car on public streets. They’re based in San Francisco. They’re going to start off as a rideshare like Lyft, Uber, etc., and also home delivery I think they have contracts with Walmart. And so they’ve been working with the National Federation of the Blind about making their cars accessible, you know, NFB and Cruise wants to make everything accessible on the front end, not an afterthought. They want it to be a forethought, you know, and that speaks volumes for who they are. And they’re concerned for the people with disabilities to be able to have access for the rides because they know, you know, at Thomas transportation is the future, but also that accessibility is huge for us. So they’ve been a supporter of the blind driver challenge and NFB are all working together to try to help Cruise make sure all their fleet cars is accessible for everyone. So the guidance system is basically the same system that I had on the motorcycle in 2013 and ‘14 at the bottom of the salt flats. So we plot the center of the course. Once I start, I go right or left one foot, I get a tone in that ear. If I’m going to the right, I get a tone in my right ear, the further off center I go, the tone increases, like do-do-do. Well, if the tone is steady, then I know I’m going parallel. I’m going straight. I just might be a few feet, right or left, which is not hurting anything. If I go too far right or left, the computer can automatically shut off the car. You can automatically deploy the parachute if it takes a certain amount of yaw. So if it’s starting to spin out it can automatically deploy the parachutes. And so Patrick can remotely shut me down from the command station in the trailer. So it’s got a lot of safety aspects built into it, but the one in the car is so much more sophisticated than the motorcycle, ‘cause the motorcycle, we were trying to go 75 miles an hour. We ended up going 65. Well at 200 miles an hour in a car, you’re going a football field per second. So there’s no room for error. It’s crazy. The sensors and the gyro and the technology that’s in that car is amazing. We tried a different call-out for the Jay Leno Show, the computer was actually calling out right, right, straight, straight. It just didn’t work. I made it happen for the Leno Show and I went 153, and that was actually my first maiden voyage, full pass on the car was the pass I filmed for Leno, but we came home and we tried a few things. Well, last May of 2021, I went to Arkansas with the racecar, with the call-out system. It didn’t work. I made two aborted passes. We came home and I regrouped, I said, I gotta have a way to practice because the racecar, it’s basically a purebred, thoroughbred racing machine. It’s not easy to go and practice. So I put a post on Facebook looking for a cheap nineties Corvette because they’re cheap and they have the same handling characteristics as a racecar, and a local guy stepped up and sold me one cheap. I said it only has to have two requirements. The air conditioner has to work, and it has to be automatic. So that way, when I go to the track, we just make it hot laps. We’re not burning up with windows up ‘cause he can’t have the windows down, ‘cause I can’t hear the guidance system. We went back to the original tone. We built a second guidance system. And then we fitted the car. Patrick would fly down in his plane from [unintelligible]. We would jump in the practice car and go to my local drag strip and just make pass after pass after pass, I burned up two sets of brakes on that car, and it was just invaluable to be able to practice in the car, you know, pass after pass. I go practice for an hour in the Corvette and get more passes than I would all day, if I was testing with the racecar, because the racecar has to be brought back to the pits every pass and cooled down, in the practice car we just hot lap it, you know, so that was instrumental to my success for the Guinness record is having that practice car and all the extra time and money and commitment that we put into that, it paid dividends big time. And sadly I burned the transmission up in the spaceport, practicing so much. I could get the practice car up to 115 miles an hour at spaceport with a 40 and 50 mile an hour sidewind and maintain a path of 10 foot over a mile, just cruise. You know, it was huge, but we practiced with so much it won’t go into third gear anymore. So I got to get the transmission fixed now, you know, but we’re going to continue this evolution of what we’re doing and if the opportunity comes up again, then we’re going to race again.
Pete:
Dan, how do you think that hindered your actual speed when you did set the record?
Dan:
Are you talking about the wind?
Pete:
Yeah, the wind and the fact that you didn’t get to practice without burning up the transmission.
Dan:
We got to practice a pretty good bit. It was the last day that the transmission messed up and we got to practice with it some that day but just not quite as much as we wanted to. And it’s amazing because our plan was to make a pass with the wind the first attempt. If we were fast enough, we’ve had the data. And so we would know how long, or if we need to adjust how long the nitro stayed on. So we raced against the wind on our return road. You know, our thought process was if we had to beat it up and kick the rod out of it, going through the traps, as long as we got the record, that’s what it takes. This is what we’re here to do. So it’s crazy that we raced against the wind on the backup run and went faster. We were fighting some issues with the car and I got, I think I got along with the car just a little bit better on the return run and it ended at 212 versus 210 on the primary run, you know, so 211 average. So it just all worked out good. You know, and I think it mainly had turned to a crosswind, there’s about a 15 to 20 mile an hour crosswind on that return run.
Jeff:
Dan, you partnering up with the National Federation of the Blind and, you know, with Riccobono helps bring awareness to more than just you doing it on your own. I mean, sponsorships, it really takes a lot to get this across the finish line. I really like the idea that it’s bigger than Dan Parker now. I mean, I’m not trying to take anything away from you, but the accomplishments that you are making as a blind person, your story from 10 years ago, your relentless attempts and your determination, the things you went through when you first opened up your shop and the story as it goes on. And here it is today, it’s big. It’s really big for the whole blindness community.
Dan:
And I appreciate that. And you’re 100% correct because the racer side of me, you know, measures success by the mile an hour, that little line that states 211 miles an hour. But the other 99% of me knows that this project, this success is far larger than Dan Parker. This is for the whole blind community, you know, for us to educate society where our capabilities are and to let them know if we have an accessible world, we can compete, you know, with our sighted peers, whether it’s the classroom, the workplace, or the racetrack. And that’s what this is all about. That’s where our intentions with NFB and everybody, upfront from the very beginning that, you know, we’re trying to make a statement with this, but the statement is not about Dan Parker. It’s about all of us together and President Riccobono and we were at spaceport, I said, you know, I have 50,000 team members. Everybody that’s an NFB member, we’re all in this together. We’re all team members. And so that’s what it’s about. It’s not taking away anything from me because I’ll be the first to admit it’s far bigger than Dan Parker. And we’re hoping that, you know, it’s used for positivity and for education in society to let the sighted world know what we’re capable of, because we need things like this. And I had somebody the other day post a comment about, you know, it was something a little negative, which is, you know, you’re always gonna have somebody post something negative. And I told them, I said, when John F. Kennedy announced that we will put a man on the moon, it was the wildest idea possible. I said, but what has trickled down from everything that developed is our iPhones that we’re carrying in our pocket. So now the iPhone that we have has far more computing power than the computers on the Apollo missions did. And so we never know how what we’re doing today will trickle down to everybody in the future, and it will trickle down and it will be to benefit all. In the very beginning, it might not be clear as day to us, but it will pay dividends for what it pays off in the long run for all of us to gain from it.
Jeff:
I mean, thanks to those moonshots, we got Tang out of the deal.
Pete:
And Velcro, right? One of the things I mentioned was talking about my pens, the ink cartridge of my made in America pens are Fisher space pens. They were made for the Apollo missions. They can write upside down, everything else in zero gravity. And so my made in American pens, that’s what they use, the Fisher space pen. So it’s ironic that that just popped in my head, but you’re right. Sometimes the benefits of something aren’t quite clear but they will be in the future.
Jeff:
Can you give the website?
Dan:
theblindmachinist.com, and machinist is m-a-c-h-i-n-i-s-t, some people try to spell it e-s-t, it’s i-s-t at the end. There’s a link. So click on the picture and it takes you to my Etsy store.
Pete:
Dan, I remember a news story focusing on the impact that you have had on one particular young blind boy.
Tad:
I really want to be like everybody else sometimes, you know?
Newscaster:
When I heard about this drag racer attempting to set a new world speed record, I thought Tad and others like him had to meet the driver.
Tad:
That just amazes me! What does he look like?
Newscaster:
Mustache and a beard. Dan went 211 miles an hour, set a record, and more importantly, an example.
Dan:
Tad, I want you to know that blindness is not what is stopping you. Surround yourself with believers and go for your dreams. You can make excuses or make it happen.
Newscaster:
Dan says inspiring the Tads of the world is the main reason he did this. And if my nephew is any indication, it was well worth the drive.
Tad:
If he can do that well, then I think I could easily pursue my dream.
Newscaster:
Steve Hartman.
Tad:
What about flying a plane?
Newscaster:
CBS news on the road. That’s exactly what I wanted to come from this
Pete:
12 years old. So I want to emphasize that, I think some of the effect and ultimate impact that you’re having that may change the world in a number of years would be on the example that you’re setting for the youth. They see what you’re able to do and they start believing or they continue believing that they can accomplish great things as well. So let’s see what happens in five, 10 years with blind individuals having seen what you’ve been doing in 2022.
Dan:
Thank you. And another part of that is, you know, I pretty much designed this whole racecar. So I want young blind students to know that they can get involved with STEM, you know, science, technology, engineering, and math, and they can be involved in stuff. And there’s so much with a racecar of hands-on helping the guys build it and design it and figure out problems and solutions. And the last morning of the run at spaceport, the torque burst two tight. That means when we put it gear it was trying to shut the motor off, [unintelligible] very efficient up top that have a lot of slippage [unintelligible] for two days. So the last morning I woke up at 1:30 in the morning and I designed a push bar that we could fabricate with stuff I had in the trailer, and the team already knew, we left the hotel at 5:00. So we got to spaceport by 6:00, it’s about an hour drive out there. So as the sun was rising at spaceport, here I was, 100% blind explaining to everybody what we needed to do and how we needed to make this with parts we had, we had welders going, grinders going out, I was [unintelligible] parts, bandsaws going, the plan was if I could get off start line, they would pull up behind me with the practice Corvette and give me a push. And we cleared it against officials. That’s totally fine. That’s, you know, that’s a [unintelligible] push truck or push car and land speed racing, and he said he didn’t care, that that’s no problem. And somebody told me, they said, well, you’re going to tear up the front bumper on that, on the practice car, and I said the practice car is a tool, you know. Yes, it’s a ‘94 Corvette, it’s decently presentable, but I said, they make another front bumper. That’s not the last one. And if we have to sacrifice that front bumper against this world record, we’re going to do it. But luckily the team, they got some stuff for fuel injection and made it where I could launch it, not launch it hard but I could launch it, get it rolling. And obviously it was good enough to get us the record.
Jeff:
You know, when your car is celebrated and you give your speech and you know, the racecar gives a speech, I want to see it say, I want to give a big shout out to that ‘94 Corvette, that made everything happen!
Dan:
The license plate ‘94 ‘vette is TST DUMY. Test dummy. Because that’s what it is! The license plate on the tow truck is CNT CRCR, which is short for “Can’t see racer.” Both of them have custom license plates, but the ‘94, she’s paid dividends. We took two trucks and trailers, all the way to spaceport, 1500 miles one way. It took 24 hours of straight driving and the truck gets six miles to the gallon. The fuel bill just in the tow truck with the racecar with the big trailer was approaching $2,500.
Jeff:
Wow. I’d like to know what kind of fuel bill it was to go down and set the record though.
Dan:
Racecar probably uses about one and a half gallons per pass. That fuel’s $20 a gallon.
Jeff:
You know, Dan, it’s really impressive the determination that you’ve had, you’re achieving lots of goals and a lot of people out there are looking up at you because they’re setting their goals. It may not be the world’s fastest racecar, driven by someone with a blindfold as they term it, but even the pens, even woodworking, even teaching, even the small stuff, getting married, that’s a challenge to some people, the optimism and pessimism can run rampant in the minds of people who are losing their vision. And your accomplishments are really changing the minds of a lot of young people out there that are looking up to you. So thanks for what you’re doing and thanks for your entire team that made this happen.
Dan:
Yeah, I appreciate it.
Pete:
Absolutely. Dan, I’m conjuring up an image in my head every time I think of Dan Parker, here’s this guy scrapping and scratching and kicking and turning and hitting obstacles and getting knocked down and getting back up again. Makes me wonder, my gosh. Have you ever not been at a low since your wreck in 2012 where you felt like I just can’t make it anymore? It’s all just not worth it. Have you ever been at that low point?
Dan:
Yes. So now I’m not ashamed to say this, six months after the wreck, I was pretty close to suicide. Being blind was scary. I didn’t know any better. Didn’t know any blind people, didn’t know anything about blindness. I had a traumatic brain injury. My whole right arm was reconstructed. It was stuck straight, I’d had to have [unintelligible] surgeries. I lost my business, you know? I was pretty much going to lose my house. You know, I never imagined that I would be back in a racecar, motorcycle, or in my shop again. I went to bed one night and my brother, who passed away in 2009, always told me about four guys from France. They built a 50 CC motorcycle. They designed it. They could take it apart, put it in their luggage. They flew to the United States. They rented a car. They went to the Bonneville salt flats. They put it together and they each got a record with and without sidecar, fairing, et cetera. Just the ultimate cool story, you know, from a hot rodder standpoint. When my mom passed away about the six months before my wreck, when I think about both of them and I was within about a week of committing suicide and I woke up at 2:00 in the morning from the most vivid dream, that I was racing at the bottom of the salt flats, and that I could race again. I never went back to sleep that night, Jennifer woke up and I told her, I said, I know I’m going to do it. I’m going to be the first blind man to race Bonneville. And she said, okay. Well that dream gave me a purpose. And that dream saved my life. And that motorcycle saved my life. It has been a bunch of fights since then. We all see the glory rosy side right now. You know, I may hold that Guinness record, but I promise you it’s been a bunch of rough days. I didn’t know- here’s what happened, just to give you an example, six weeks before the Guinness record attempt, I had to make the hard decision that the transmission I had in the car was finicky, we were approaching 1000 horsepower with the nitrous, and I just didn’t have confidence that it was [unintelligible]. So I made the decision to convert it over to what’s called a turbo 400 racing transmission, which entailed a lot of fabrication. So six weeks before the wreck I made that decision, three weeks- I mean before the race, three weeks before the race, I had no motor, no transmission in the car, no rear suspension. And there’s a hole cut about a foot by foot in my transmission tunnel and people come to the shop, I was using my buddy’s shop at this point, you know, there ain’t no way you gonna make it. And we thought- there was some days I spent almost 24 hours at the shop. We made it, you know, ‘cause a bunch of volunteer people donating and companies, you know, really making it happen to get me to the turbo 400 swap and freebie performance, get my new motor. And so there has been a whole bunch of setbacks, but there’s one thing that I’ve learned, that it’s amazing what you can accomplish if you take quitting off the table, if you say I’m not quitting, you know, I don’t give a daggone what happens. I’m not quitting. That’s not an option. You might have plan A, plan B, plan K, whatever. If you take quitting off the table, it’s amazing what you can accomplish. And that’s where we were. We left 12 hours later than we wanted to, we were originally gonna split it up into two days, traveling to spaceport, we left late, so the guys said we’re driving straight through, 28 hours straight through. We rolled into spaceport with a car that we knew we had all the right parts combined in one spot, and we’re having some problems that we need just a little luck, and we just kept fighting until we got it done. You know, that goes for anybody, sighted, blind or whatever. We all have some setbacks. You gotta just keep fighting.
Jeff:
Your words will carry through to a lot of people, Dan. I want to thank you so much for coming on here and sharing with us.
Dan:
Thanks so much. I enjoy the Blind Abilities podcast and your educational videos, because everybody knows me, I’m a wrench and screwdriver kind of a guy, so I’m not the most technical person in the world. So I learn from them every time I listen to one. So I appreciate what y’all do for the blind community, and I enjoy being on your show.
Pete:
Thanks Dan.
Pete:
And now stay tuned for some more details from Pete and Jeff and Dan about the car, the track, the event and the aftermath.
Jeff:
I have a question for you after they said, you know, take it to the trailer. What was the deacceleration time like? And did the chutes come out?
Dan:
So in the call-out, 200 feet from the finish line, it calls out parachute. I deployed the parachute. And then it calls out finished and only 205 miles on our pass, it was starting to get a little touchy down there. Long story short, I smoked all the brakes on the racecar. And so I let Jason take over in the shutdown area on the two record runs because the brakes were pulling right and left and he just did the steering. We ran out of real estate really quick on that last run because with the moondisc, and the car’s got a full belly pan front and rear for aerodynamic system. Totally smooth bottom. There’s no air going to the brakes to cool. And so when I went to the 210, they sit there and heat soak for 45 minutes. It starts bowling the flute and the brakes. Well that 212 pass, I don’t think we had about- we had less than a thousand feet in the runway when I finally got it stopped, brake pedals going to the floor and he told me, he says, we need more brake. And, you know, I’m trying to be smooth, to apply the brakes as hard as I can without locking up the brakes and spinning out the car, but she was running out of real estate. You know, that thing weighs over 4,000 pounds, and me and Jason and the car from 212 miles hour, you know, it, ain’t easy to stop 4,000 pounds of momentum, you know, so if I raced again, I’ve got to upgrade the brakes, we were pushing everything to its limits, put it that way.
Pete:
How long was the track?
Dan:
12,000 feet.
Jeff:
Going at 212 miles per hour, you must have a different type of oil pumping system. You said the brake fluid was boiling. I’m sure it doesn’t compress as well at that ratio.
Dan:
Jason ran my car last summer in Maine and I had a system on the car then, and we found out through the data log and old pressures and everything. The old pressure was dropping from 55 pounds to 25 pounds at the one mile mark. And when he pulled the parachute to the amount of half, it was going to zero. So I’d already started to build a spare motor and long story short, both motors got the identical new oiling system, it was called a three-stage dry sump system. So two stages of a pump suck oil out of a pan to a remote tank, and then once they take the tank and pressurize the motor, that’s what they’ll use. That solved our problem. Just to give an example, the oil system for each motor, there’s two of them, was $3,500 a piece, just the old pump systems.
Jeff:
But that way you have constant oil circulation going on.
Dan:
I got constant- oil pressure, put that turbo 400 in there. I had to do everything possible to eliminate weak points and the two weak points were the oil system and the transmission, I had to invest a bunch to get that off the table. We carried a spare motor with us, but if I kicked the rods out of motor and blew it up, it would take a minimum of four or five hours to change the motor. And we didn’t have the time. Of course we’d have to stay there all night. And if we needed to, we could do that, but we didn’t want to do that. But we came prepared. I had a spare differential, spare set actual, spare hubs, a whole new complete set of brakes. I mean, I had so many spare parts in that trailer, it was just overloaded, but we came prepared. We didn’t just show up with just a Lamborghini off the showroom that runs 200 miles an hour. This is a pure racecar that, like I said, they run a lot faster if it needs to.
Jeff:
From the training and the drive shaft, are you using U-joints? I would think that a thousand horsepower, that would be a vulnerable spot.
Dan:
They’re using CV-joints, like what comes in a Corvette because they’re half shafts, but they’re upgraded. When I put the turbo 400 transmission in, long story short, Jason White let me borrow his differential and axles, and they’re all rated at 2000 horsepower. We did so much just trying to make this thing bulletproof, it’s crazy. The effort that went into it, now this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I had to set this Guinness record and I did everything humanly possible on my part to prepare. I feel like a boxer that went 12 rounds and won, but I’m so tired I can’t even raise my hands in celebration because I’ve been fighting for so long. It’s hard to understand. I can’t raise my arms, you know, ‘cause I’m so tired. I slept for damn near days when I come home because the last several months has been rough. We made it all happen. I got a team of guys. We had 11 people there supporting me just on the race team. Three of them were engineers, one race engine builder, and another tuner from North Dakota, Jason White from New Hampshire that had my car last year, he was my copilot. The amount of talent we had in one location to make this happen was amazing. We had everybody from California, to Florida, New Hampshire, North Dakota, and Georgia. And everywhere in between. This was not an easy task. It’s hard enough to get a car around 200 miles an hour, you know, but then to try and do what we did adds a lot more complexity into it.
Pete:
So have you been in touch with Mike from the UK? He was first to break 200 miles an hour. Did he congratulate you?
Dan:
So Mike and I that had the record, we’re friends. Yeah. Yeah. I called him the next morning. I was gonna call him that day but it was too late, past midnight, by the time I could- his time, you know, so I called the next day and he congratulated me. Mike Newman is a true English gentleman. He is just the nicest person you ever want to meet. Very humble. He’s been very supportive through this, you know, and I have the record now, but Mike, he will always be the first one to 200.
Pete:
Tell me how Guinness actually went about measuring this. Did they do a snapshot of speed at about a mile mark and then a mile and a half mark?
Dan:
No, so we had to hire the Loring Timing Association to come down from Maine and they set up their clocks. The clocks had to be certified. Guinness had to go through all kinds of procedures with them. They tested the clocks. And then whenever I was making the runs, the Guinness official was with Tim Kelly from Loring officiating and witnessing what the timing clock said and everything. Then once we made the backup runs, they had to take the in-car GoPro videos that proved that Jason wasn’t helping me. And I had to witness that. They certified that it was a record then, at that point. Our speed traps were a mile and a half from each half of each end. So there’s two sets of speed traps. It depends on which direction we were going. So, yeah, that’s how it was set up. When I designed the car, everything’s safety on the driver’s side is mimicked on the passenger side. There’s head containment seats, window net, you know, six point seatbelt, he has a steering wheel, I designed it, that hooks to my stairwell through a chain. That chain goes across back left to right. He doesn’t have a brake pedal or gas pedal but he can shut the motor off, he can deploy parachutes. He can pull the fire extinguisher systems. You know, he has control of everything for the most part. So, you know, safety, after everything I went through, we went way above and beyond requirements.
Pete:
That’s something that’s surprised me, to be honest with you. When my son said, yeah, he’s got two steering wheels, I said no kidding, I never would have known that.
Jeff:
One turns left, one turns right, Pete.
Dan:
As you can imagine in this lawsuit world, it ain’t easy to get somebody to insure this. This was not an easy process to get done. Everything we had to do to prove our safety program, the capabilities of the car, my fire suit alone is a $3,000- just my fire suit. Between the helmet, hans device, fire suit, nomex underwear, gloves, boots, and shoes and everything, it’s $5,000 for the safety equipment just for me on my side, just what I wear. That’s not the rest of the car, it’s just what I wear.
Jeff:
Alright.
Dan:
Alright.
Jeff:
Well, thank you, Dan. Thank you so much for all this.
Pete:
Thanks Dan. Good luck moving forward.
Dan:
Y’all have a good day.
Jeff:
Alright.
Dan:
Bye.
Pete:
Jeff and I want to thank Dan for joining us in the Blind Abilities studio. Again, we encourage you to check out his website and show him your support. That’s www.theblindmachinist.com. Machinist is spelled m-a-c-h-i-n-i-s-t.com. There you can find all of his links to his social media pages, and as usual, thanks to Chee Chau for his wonderful music. And for more podcasts from a blindness perspective, check us out on the web too. That’s www.blindabilities.com. Thanks so much for listening and have a great day.
[Music] [Transition noise] -When we share
-What we see
-Through each other’s eyes…
[Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]
…We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities.
Jeff:
For more podcasts with a blindness perspective, check us out on the web www.blindabilities.com, on Twitter @BlindAbilities, download our app from the app store, Blind Abilities, that’s two words, or send us an email at info@blindabilities.com. Thanks for listening.