Bonneville Land Speed Racing vrooms back after hiatus
By Dana DuGan
Do you have a need for speed? It’s a primal urge to go faster, run faster, ski faster, and drive faster. At the Bonneville Land Speed Racing venue, driving fast is the whole purpose, whether it’s in hot rods, roadsters, belly tankers, motorcycles, streamliners, or diesel trucks. And they’re there to break records. Run by Bonneville Nationals, Inc., Speed Week is held in August each year on the Bonneville Salt Flats near Wendover, Nev.
The salt flats were first used for motor sports in 1912, but did not become truly popular until the 1930s.
In 1949, when the competitions became official, the salt was thick, snow white and a couple of feet deep. There were a handful of cars, and a few spectators. But Hot Rod Magazine covered it, bringing national attention to a sport that was big in California but little known elsewhere. Today, some 600 cars and vehicles compete in a variety of classes, with about 100,000 spectators over the course of the week.
A reduction of available racing surface and salt thickness to about an inch led to the cancellation of Speed Week last year. Due to salt mining on the land, climate change and wear and tear, the available racing surface is much reduced, with just 2.5 miles available instead of the nine-mile courses traditionally needed for the week.
But intrepid drivers and motor heads will still make the trip and attempt their own records. Mark Miller, of Hailey, is one such enthusiast. Owner of Mark’s Automotive in Bellevue, Miller is the holder of five world records, and says he’s broken “probably 30 or more” of his own previous records. Miller began working in earnest on cars at age 13 and went to Bonneville for the first time 20 years ago.
“In 1996, a man we knew was building a car for Bonneville, and I helped him,” Miller said. “He let me drive it. Next year I brought my own car, a MR2 Toyota, then a ’52 Chevy pickup.”
The Chevy, which he bought in 1999, once belonged to Steve McQueen for use on his ranch. And it looks as if it’s still in use.
“It’s got an old pitch fork with one tine and busted up broom,” Miller said. “They call it the farm truck, but they don’t let me run it with all the stuff on it. It’s got a chicken coop with life-sized stuffed chickens and eggs in it. A guy brought me his mother’s stuffed chicken once year. It’s all oxidized. All I did was put numbers on it. It’s pretty unique. The first year a guy chased me down and said ‘whatever you do, don’t paint that truck.’”
But the farm truck is more than a gimmick. Miller set a record at 155 mph and still holds two records. He now races a 1979 Pontiac Firebird with which he holds three records. His last record had him clocked at 228 mph.
“I’ll be there again as long as it doesn’t rain,” he said.
People may have a vague notion of Bonneville from the movie, “The World’s Fastest Indian,” about Burt Munro, a New Zealand motorcycle racer. He’s famous for setting an under-1,000 cc world record on his 1920 Indian motorcycle at Bonneville in 1967. This record still stands.
Munro is a legend at Bonneville, but there are plenty of records, and characters in abundance.
“There are a lot of oldtimers out there,” Miller, 58, said. “I’m a relatively young driver in comparison. Machinists and engineers retire and this is what they’ve always wanted to do.”
Miller said he built both cars in his garage at home, though he’s the owner of a shop he opened in 2007.
“It’s about the speed, the self-satisfaction,” he said. “And there’s something special about setting your car down on those salt flats. It makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck. It’s like being on the snow but it’s a hundred degrees.”
Besides being known for his speedy farm truck, Miller is the guy with an all-woman pit crew. His wife and daughter, Rustin and Jozey, and even his mother-in-law, before she died a couple years ago, are always with him. His late father, a mechanic himself, would also come to watch.
One thing is obvious from the tales people tell, whether you’re a driver or a spectator, it’s a thrill to be on the white salt surrounded by vehicles of all shapes, sizes and abilities.
“It’s like going to Vegas with the people watching,” Miller said. “Everything you can imagine is there. It’s truly unique stuff.”
Miller said one year a guy came with his unicycle. They made a category just for him; he was the solo racer, suited up in proper gear despite the 100-degree heat.
“If they don’t have a category for your vehicle, they’ll make one,” he said.
Wood River Valley resident Paul Bates, a frequent attendee at Bonneville in his 1948 Helms bread truck, said at Bonneville drivers don’t use jet engines like they do at other tracks. Rather, the vehicles are all wheel driven.
“Peter Vincent, a photographer from Moscow, Idaho, and I were given permission to go to the five-mile mark when Al Teague sped by in his Streamliner at 420 mph,” Bates said. “When you watch something on the ground penetrating the air that fast, you realize it’s an incredible achievement.”
Spectators are separated from the speed tracks by 100 feet for safety. But it’s a continuous party. Every state is represented, even other countries. Some teams come with their own backup rigs complete with mechanics for every possibility. People camp out on the flats, but most stay at the casino hotels in Wendover.
If you go: Take Route 93 south through Twin Falls, about 4 hours. There are about four casino hotels but rooms may be scarce at this point.
Side bar: Save the Salt Foundation is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to protect the Bonneville Salt Flats and to promote its history and legacy. In 2011, a number of prominent organizations formed the “Save the Salt Coalition” to help the nonprofit organization achieve its goal. In order to restore the Salt Flats, the Coalition works with government officials, mine operators and others to supplement the current salt replenishment activities. In 2014, the Utah Alliance, an advocacy group was formed to use its expertise and contacts at the local level to protect this historic place listed on the National Register.
On BLM land and originally called “The Salduro Marsh”, geologists have described the salt flats as centered in a bowl shaped area rich in concentrated minerals and underlying heavy carbonate mud.
Salt and surface crust is being lost due to human interference over the past 100 years. The 1 percent annual loss of salt crust exposes a progressively enlarging mud around the perimeter. This increases dust pollution and rain erosion mud transfers onto the salt crust.
Prior to the 1900s, Bonneville’s crust was unobstructed from Wendover, 80 miles east to Knolls and stretched some 100 miles to the south. Australia’s Lake Gairdner of present day mirrors Bonneville’s past condition.