wheels on salt

You ever see The World's Fastest Indian, that movie where Anthony Hopkins plays an old Kiwi who schleps his Indian motorcycle from New Zealand to Utah to try to set a Speed Week land speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats?  I saw it too but even better: H and I went out to the Bonneville Salt Flats for Speed Week ourselves.  We just did a day trip, which was plenty.  It's a long ride from SLC - over 100 miles each way - although 80W is straight and flat and there's really no traffic once you get west of Tooele.  And it's bloody hot out there on the salt, 90+ degrees with no shade and the glare reflecting off the bright white flats.  But the salt flats have a stark, otherworldly beauty that I'm really drawn to ... and dang, those cars and motorcycles are wild!

Stark and otherworldly - am I right?

We took a vacation day so we could go mid-week and the crowds were nonexistent.  We drove the little Subaru right out onto the salt, nabbing a parking place not far from the starting line.  There are three courses: the short course (4ish miles long), where the amateurs have to prove themselves; the combo course (5ish miles); and the long course (7+ miles, plus your vehicle has to go over 200 m.p.h. to even get on this course - it's where the big dogs run).

In 2006 on the BSF, this guy set a land

speed record of 323 m.p.h.

Despite the fact that all these people - mostly old, rich white guys, the only ones able to put the time and money necessary into these vehicles - are here to try to set records, whether personal or course or world, the atmosphere is really chill.  Spectators can stand right next to the vehicles at the starting line; you can walk up to the cars and 'cycles as they wait in line for their start; if someone needs a push or a part, there's always someone willing to help out.  People are friendly too, happy to answer questions from a couple of newbies.

This is Billy.  He would come within 2/10ths of a mile

of the record on this run - over 206 m.p.h.

We hung around the starting line for a couple hours, taking pictures, talking to folks, watching these crazy machines rush out of sight and over the horizon within seconds.  (By the way, the Bonneville Salt Flats is so big and flat that it's one of the few places on the planet where you can actually see the curve of the earth, so once the racers got out three miles, they disappeared from sight.)  We reapplied our SPF50 once, and donned long sleeved shirts and - miraculously - managed to not get sunburned.

Getting a push at the start

After a while we drove a couple of miles down the salt flats to where the pits were set up.  The pits stretch for three more miles along the race course (but back away from it so there's no danger).  We strolled about, looking at the crews working on their vehicles, and turning to watch every time a racer blew past the 2-mile marker.  We were soon able to tell who was fast - and it really wasn't worth watching if they weren't going at least 200 m.p.h., frankly.

The salt is really not that good for your Mad Max-ish Jaguar

These guys are nuts, going so fast, but they love what they do and they seem very supportive of each other.  They're pretty respectful of the salt too: I saw no trash strewn about anywhere; and at the starting line, most vehicles are pushed out by another non-racing vehicle until they come up to speed, in part so they don't spin their wheels and destroy the salt in their acceleration.  It's not something I want to do myself, and I'm not sure I need to go back to see it again anytime soon, but I'm sure glad we went to check it out.