B20 Powers a 182-Mile-Per-Hour Land Speed Record

Oklahoma farmer talks about taking an F-250 to the salt flats

With the help of Missouri soybean farmers and their state’s soybean checkoff board, Oklahoma soybean farmer Brent Hajek recently put B20, a diesel blend with 20 percent biodiesel, to the test at Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats. Earlier this year he broke the land speed record there by reaching 182 miles per hour in a Ford F-250 truck powered with B20. Hajek recently spoke with Beyond the Bean Online about his hopes for biodiesel and where he’s been driving since.

Q: Does B20 run differently from conventional diesel?
A: It smells better. As far as the actual characteristics though—you cannot tell the difference. We’ve been running it in our heavy equipment and trucks and we haven’t noticed any differences. There are stories about filters clogging or problems starting and we haven’t seen any of those problems.

Q: What do you hope the land speed record does for B20 and biodiesel?
A: What our goal is and the major problem with B20 is availability. We need to get more farmers, fleet owners and consumers to ask for it and say to distributors that they want to use biodiesel. People don’t understand the advantages, but 20 percent of that money spent on B20 goes to U.S. soybean farmers, not foreign oil companies. And of course it’s more environmentally friendly.

Q: What have you been doing since the run at the salt flats?
A: Since breaking the record, the truck has only been home for two weeks. We’ve been on a very aggressive tour with it. We were at the Texas State Fair for 24 days, and then we were at Ford’s display at the Special Equipment Market Association Show in Las Vegas. We just got back from NASCAR championship weekend at Miami, Fla., and it’s currently at our local Ford dealership for the 55th anniversary of the dealership.  In the last 110 days the truck has been seen by 3.8 million people. This February we’ll also be at the National Biodiesel Board’s Biodiesel Conference in Orlando, Fla.

We’ve had a lot of requests for the vehicle. The interest expressed in it has been overwhelming. We’ve got a truck that will out run a Ferrari. I like to call it the world’s fastest sustainable production truck.