Werewolf Of Corpus Christi

One Bad GT500 That Tears Off More Than 230 Mph at the Texas Mile!

- Ro McGonegal

IN the early days, top speed contests were confined to seemingly endless dry lakebeds or the Bonneville salt, places that were miles from anywhere and suitably unpopulated. Airstrips pertinent to WWII were abandoned but weren’t used for organized highspeed hijinks. Were they too close to civilization? At the lakes and therefore without physical boundaries, there was no civilization save for what the racers brought with them.

As time continues to march, so have the parameters. Much easier to run at a “local” venue than make the trek to the salt but once a year, hence the “Mile” races that have become so popular now. Lots of people really rise to the spirit, forget the trailer, and drive there and back. The Texas Mile is just one of these havens.

Now, it takes a special kind of loon to crave driving flat out the back door, driving that car as fast as possible, and Ken Polk might be one of them. Polk resides out of Corpus Christi, Texas. At the April 2016 trials, he and his Kenne Bell–blown, street- legal GT500 posted 232.4 mph, with a half-mile speed of 188.5. To put this in perspective, a couple of hours before Polk made his run, Patrick O’Gorman drove his street-legal, twin-turbo, alcohol-fired 2006 GT to an insane 279.9 top.