Fastest Prof in the West

by Jeff Harrison
Aug. 24, 2001


M. Bonner Denton, one of the most respected analytical chemists in the country, is now also very likely the fastest.

Denton, who just returned from Utah, set the official land speed record for sports cars at the legendary Bonneville salt flats on Aug. 17.

Driving a highly modified 1959 Berkeley, Denton posted a qualifying run of 267.555 mph and backed it up with a return run of 260.459 mph, giving him an average speed of 264.007 mph.

The time not only is the best in his class, the A blown (turbocharged or supercharged) modified sports category, but also the best for any sports car. Bonneville Nationals Inc., and the Southern California Timing Association are the governing bodies for speed racing aficionados since 1948 and official timekeepers

Denton's Berkeley broke the 246.511 mph mark set in 1993 by an MG powered by a supercharged Chrysler hemi-head.

Denton was back in Tucson long enough to meet with United States Navy officials about research funding, before he headed off to Chicago, where on Aug. 28, he received the spectroscopy award from the Analytical Division of the American Chemistry Society at its annual meeting.

For the past 30 years, Denton's day job has been professor of chemistry and geosciences at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where he teaches and heads a research group that is on the cutting edge of optical spectroscopy. His research has revolutionized modern analytical chemistry by developing new concepts for analyzing complex samples for their constituent elements.

Denton holds several patents and awards related to optical spectrographic technology. His group, which presently includes two senior scientists, a part-time editor and 10 graduate students, is supported by several million dollars worth of grants. His awards include the 1998 Pittsburgh Spectroscopy Award, which was also won the year earlier by the 1998 Nobel laureate and Cal Tech Professor Ahmed Zewail.

The Navy is interested in Denton's work for their submarine program. Subs, which are highly sealed, contained environments, need to constantly monitor air quality for a variety of gases - oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, fuels plus a variety of other substances that can "outgas" into the submarine environment. Denton says the Navy's current monitoring equipment is becoming outdated.

The Texas native's racing hobby goes back to his high school days, when he built and raced hot rods, including a 1929 Model A Ford with a Chrysler hemi, and a Chevy V8 powered Austin Healy 100-4 and a 1958 Bocar. In 1964 and 1965 he won the American Hot Rod Association's national drag racing championships in the unlimited modified sports car category.

He supported his early years in the sport by working as a technician at Coastal Electronics, and as a teaching assistant at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, where he repaired and rebuilt chemistry instruments. Along the way he also graduated from Lamar University and earned a doctorate at Illinois before coming to the UA in 1971.

It's not a cheap hobby. Denton can't say how much he's spent over the years, but did mention he just blew four tires, at $360 apiece, trying to solve a steering problem with the Berkeley.

And don't be looking for Denton to be cruising Speedway in his machine anytime soon. The front-wheel drive roadster has a 494 cubic inch (8.095 liter) Donovan engine, modified with twin turbochargers ("blown" in racing vernacular), fuel injected and ice water cooled to produce more than 2000 horsepower using gasoline as fuel.

Not every mechanic in town is equipped to handle the kind of modifications necessary to make a 42-year-old car go 260 miles an hour, either, so the garage of Denton's home in far east Tucson has become a car mechanic's Nirvana. All of the fabrication for the car, except the fiberglass bodywork, which is done by Chuck McCain of Glas-Tec Inc. of Tucson, is done in house. Denton is the principle designer, builder and driver of the car. His pit crew includes crew chief George DeLaMatyr, Richard DeLaMatyr, Dennis Morgan and Calvin Denton.

Denton said his teaching and research duties keep him from going back to Bonneville this fall, but he said he plans to return next August for another run.

In addition to his membership on Bonneville Nationals Inc. and the Southern California Timing Association, Denton also serves on the Technical Committee for the Save the Salt Program, along with Wally Parks, founder of the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) and Ray Brock, former editor of Hot Rod Magazine.

Save the Salt is returning tons of salt mined from the flats during most of the 20th century. The mines produced potassium chloride and magnesium chloride but in the process removed much of the sodium chloride (salt) from the flats as well, turning much of what was once prime racing ground to mud.

"To date, this program has returned more than 10 billion pounds of salt to the racecourse, greatly improving the quality of the racing surface," Denton said. "This effort promises to not only save the historic race course for use by future generations, but also to preserve a unique environment and landscape."

The salt flats have served as the locale for commercial advertisements and movie sets, including 20th Century Fox's "Independence Day."

Denton also takes a great deal of pride in holding down a hobby in the midst of managing his professional and academic life, something that others do also in one field or another.

"Some of us not only do science very well, but a lot of other things very well, too.

"We're not all a bunch of nerds."

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