David Abbott “Ab” Jenkins smeared grease on his face to protect it from the blazing Utah sun, settled behind the gigantic steering wheel of his 1932 Pierce-Arrow and roared around a 10-mile circle marked with stakes on the Bonneville Salt Flats. For 24 continuous hours, Jenkins stopped only to fill up with gas. The roar of the V-12 engine left him temporarily deaf.

 This account by Jeff Fox, publisher of Barracuda Magazine, illustrates why Jenkins is often called Utah’s Son of Speed.

 Jenkins drove again in 1933, and in 1934 he successfully set a number of world endurance records, including averaging 127.229 miles per hour for 24 hours. He traveled slightly more than 3,000 miles, or 300 laps around the 10-mile course.

Fox also reported the following anecdotes: Jenkins’ crew signaled him with large signs. “For amusement, Jenkins wrote notes back to his crew on a notepad anchored to the middle of his steering wheel and threw the missives to them as he thundered by at over 100 mph.”

 After the last gas stop of the 1933 run, Jenkins took out a razor and shaved while driving around the track at more than 125 mph so he would be cleanshaven when the run ended.

 Jenkins was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and he credited his endurance to being a Mormon and abstaining from tobacco, alcohol and coffee.

 John Hollansworth of Hot Springs, Ark., has been captivated by Jenkins’ story since he met Marvin Jenkins, Ab’s son. When Hollansworth located a Pierce-Arrow chassis and V-12 engine, he decided to replicate Jenkins’ Bonneville racer. Hollansworth, who owns other vintage cars and often competes in the Great Race, grew up in Kansas City and graduated from East High School. He raced champ cars and midgets throughout the Midwest in the 1960s and nearly secured a ride in the 1967 Indianapolis 500.

 Hollansworth hired Jamie Hart, an instructor at McPherson College in McPherson, Kan., to duplicate the original body. McPherson College offers classes in auto restoration. Hart is an expert with an English wheel, a device used to make compound curves in sheet metal, and he replicated the body after making a wooden model.

 The car was completed in 2002 and Hollansworth headed to Bonneville to run it on the Salt Flats, but had to come back because rain canceled the event. Last September he hauled his Pierce-Arrow back to Bonneville. He made three or four runs, hitting about 114 miles per hour. “It felt like 150,” he said.

 Jenkins’ Pierce-Arrow replica was displayed on May 1 at McPherson College’s fifth annual C.A.R.S. show in McPherson. The V-12 engine has an exhaust note so piercing that it could shake the shingles from your roof. It’s no wonder Jenkins was temporarily deafened by its sound.

 Hollansworth said that when he fired up the car at Bonneville, tears ran down Marvin Jenkins’ cheeks. “I built the car as a tribute to Marv and his father, Ab,” Hollansworth said. “We accomplished our purpose.”