Bill Long dreamed of racing on the storied Bonneville Salt Flats ever since he was an 8-year-old boy reading about them in his uncle’s car magazines. Now 78 years old, he still reads such magazines regularly, keeping up on racing, hot rod and muscle car trends. “I decided that if I could, I would race there someday,” says Long.
Long grew up to become a lumber wholesaler, husband and father – yet he never forgot his dream. On a summer of 1972 road trip to Utah from his home in Portland, Oregon, with his wife and three young children in a rented camper, he finally got to see the Flats and drive the famous measured mile. He couldn’t resist a test run. “We got this mammoth motor home up to about 75, 80 mph,” says Long, with a laugh. “It was shaking like crazy, dishes were rattling, kids were crying, and the old motor home was gasping for air.” Long was hooked.
After he retired, Long found himself spending his time looking for used parts for his white 2005 5-speed turbocharged Forester. “The first thing I did was lower the car about 6 inches,” he says. He ultimately added headers, a 3-inch downpipe, exhaust, larger tires and an STI intercooler. With only 100,000 miles on the odometer, the Forester was ready to race. And so was Long.
He entered Utah Salt Flats Racing Association’s street car class in 2012, achieving a top speed of 134 mph. “But I knew that the car would go faster,” he says. Since that day, he’s raced in five more competitions across the country, with his wife, Patty, and daughter, Lori, often working the pit. After he reached a personal record of 164.3 mph in the 2013 Mojave Magnum, he and Patty drove the Forester up the California coast to celebrate the occasion – and their 47th wedding anniversary.
In 2016, after an epic road trip from Portland, Oregon, to Portland, Maine, the trio headed north to the former Loring Air Force Base, near the Canadian border, where Long set a track record for his class: 160.4 mph. That same year, the Forester was totaled in a traffic accident, which, luckily, resulted in no major injuries. Soon after, he bought another Forester, a 2008 burgundy model he nicknamed “Rubie the Subie.” Rubie, a little tamer than her predecessor, isn’t as fast, but that’s OK with Long. “I like to show people you don't have to buy exotics to have a good time,” he says. “Rubie runs with the best of them.”
Recently, Long competed in The Colorado Mile in Watkins, Colorado, where Lori took her first turn at the wheel. She didn’t truly understand her dad’s passion for racing, she says, until experiencing the sport for herself. Now, she gets it. “He’s a joy to watch,” she says. “And I just love how he’s made his dream work.”
