Meet Kevin and Gwen Therres; Kevin is the driver and creator of the world’s first and only canola biodiesel powered jet funny car. Together with his wife Gwen, they maintain and keep the jet funny car running. The jet funny car is the world’s first jet car running on B100, also known as 100% canola based biodiesel. It can reach 253 miles per hour in 6.3 seconds! MCGA is proud to sponsor this crowd-drawing ambassador for canola-based biodiesel.
Kevin and the jet funny car travel across Canada and the United States. Not only is it the most environmentally friendly Corvette you will see, but running on biodisel also makes it the fastest. The Humboldt, Saskatchewan-based husband and wife duo are quite the team, Kevin is the builder,driver and mechanic on the cars and Gwen is the Crew chief and also does the administrative work. There is absolutely no doubt they are passionate about the jet funny car and pour their heart and soul into maintaining it, driving, showing it and talking to people about it.
We talked Kevin and asked him 5 Questions to learn more about his passion.
5 Questions
Q. 1 For those that are not familiar with it, can you describe what the biodiesel jet funny car is and what makes it unique?
It is 1/4 mile drag race tube chassis with a fibre glass corvette body on it. It races in NHRA and IHRA exibition class. The engine is a jet powered J 60P ratt and Whitney and J85 General Electric. These cars are the only two jet powered cars running on 100% biodiesel we are still in the age where jet turbines have only ran 30% biodiesel and we run 100% biodiesel made from canola.
Q. 2 How does canola play a role in the jet funny car?
The biodiesel we run in the car is made from canola and we run B100 from canola Grade 3, heated or green.
Q. 3 How did you first get involved in doing what you do?
We have drag raced for many years and I am a mechanic at an Ag dealer. I was on a call to fix a farmers combine who was harvesting canola. The farmer and I started talking about making fuel out of canola for use on the farm. On the way home, I daydreamed about racing and how canola biofuel could work. We did lots of research on biodiesel on the internet internet and how we could make it work for drag racing. Being a racer, we had seen jet cars so I started looking into how to put jet cars and biodiesel together. After many hours we started this project and one and a half years later we introduced the world’s first biodiesel jet car!
Q. 4 What drives your passion for what you do?
Being able to race and build race cars and to make people more aware of a fuel alternative that is green and better for our environment. Also, it allows us to bring racing and farming to come together.
Q. 5 Can you tell us about one of your highlights of your career?
Being inducted into the Hall of Fame in Humboldt as well as having a picture of the car in the Ag Museum in Ottawa. Plus the pleasure of working and getting to know so many good people from all over.
About the Canola Jet Funny Car
The canola based biodiesel jet funny car is a 2007 Chevrolet Corvette powered by a J60 Pratt and Whitney Jet Enginethat is more commonly used in the T-2 Buckeye, an intermediate training aircraft for the US Navy. The car is specifically designed for drag racing with dual parachutes and the aerodynamice design of the Corvette body. It runs on pure Canola Based B100 Biodiesel.
The car has been name Prairie Gold, due to the unique fuel being used in the Jet Engine.
Be Well…Wendy
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