In 1999 Jeff became the first to drive a stock-body passenger vehicle, in this case a 1992 Pontiac Firebird, over 300 mph at the Bonneville Nationals Land Speed Trials. Jerry and Joe were right there making sure everything was just right for the trial.

While Jerry was building the Muroc, he asked Jerilyn if she wanted to drive it at Bonneville.“I’d never done it before in all the years they had been racing. I’d never driven a race car,” she explained. “I decided I wanted to try.”

So on August 18 the Kugel family set out to drive all night to get from La Habra to Bonneville in Utah, a 12-hour drive. They took turns driving the Muroc complete with its fenders, running board, and windshield on the road. Jerilyn drove it  on the way out to get the feel of it, but never for very long. When they arrived in Bonneville off came the street components of the car including the license plate (that’s where the parachute had to go). On went a small Lexan (an extremely tough plastic) windshield and a cage to protect the driver. The wheels and tires were changed out and a different cooler system was installed.

During Speed Week there are 500 entries a day. Some are cars, others are motorcycles. “You sit in line and wait a couple of hours until its your turn.  Actually you try to sit in the truck which is air conditioned, climbing out only when you have to move the car up,” Jerilyn explained.  “When there are five cars ahead of you, it’s time to get the suit on.”  Jerilyn’s wait, in fact her whole week, was made more interesting because the Discovery Channel had learned of the endeavor and was following her around along with the rest of the family.

“On the first run you can’t go faster than 150 mph. Most do 125. My brothers had given me a tach reading to go by and told me to get it up to there and leave it,” she recounted.

“On that first run I was scared to death. I got it right though,” she said. Jeff chimed in, “She got it up to 140 and held it there.”

On the second run she was suppose to keep it between 150 and 175 and again she did just as instructed, hitting 161 over the three mile course. “It’s a simple car to drive. Basically it is an automatic, but I did have to shift it at certain points,”she said. Her crew’s instructions were typically brotherly, “Don’t do anything stupid.”