Bonneville Speed Week 2006

A bunch of you asked me last year to provide more info when the time arrived..... Bonneville Speed Week is August 12 thru 18 this year. It is a very interesting way to spend a day. I'll be on the salt with my family August 12 for sure, maybe more.....

The colors, excitement, people and smells are some of the items that attract race addicts. This is a sport where out of bounds means you are probably not coming back......

HELPFUL HINTS FOR SPECTATORS

The Bonneville Speedway is located approximately 88 miles west of Salt Lake City, UT right off Interstate 80. The Speedway is easy to find, you can actually see cars on the Salt as you approach Wendover.

Wendover is the closest town to the salt flats for accommodations, food, casinos & night life. The spectacular scenery and racing conditions at Bonneville make it one of the most popular areas in the world for speed.

Speed Week consists of six days of racing (Sat thru Fri), weather and conditions permitting. ALL vehicles are allowed to run every day of the event. There are no special days for motorcycles or cars, etc.

There is no camping ON the salt. EVERYONE must exit the salt when the staging lanes have closed for the day.

Private campgrounds and hookups are available in nearby Wendover.

Entry passes onto the salt are $10/day or $40/week. You can purchase them at the entrance to the salt.

Spectators are allowed to walk through the pits, view the vehicles, and talk to the drivers and crew members. Public parking is south of the pit area, on the west side of the race track, outside of the cones.

Be sure to bring a hat, and shade from the sun. An umberella provides nice shade as you walk around. Binoculars are also a great idea since the race vehicles are at least 1/4 mile away as they travel down the course. Outside coolers are allowed so you can bring your own food and drink.

There are vendors located on the salt for food, refreshments, eyewear, sunscreen & much more.

Please pick up ALL of your trash and take it with you. There are dumpsters provided.


SCHEDULE

*Times shown are Mountain Time (Utah). Record runs will be conducted at 7:00 am everyday (except Saturday). Qualifying runs will follow immediately.

Friday
8:00 am to 6:00 pm
Technical inspection, registration and pit setup.

Saturday
7:00 am ...Pits open, inspection and registration.
10:30 am ...Course stewards meeting, registration area.
11:00 am ....Driver/Crew meeting (all drivers)
11:30 am....New driver/crew meeting and orientation (all NEW drivers & crews must attend)
12:00 noon (+/-)...Racing begins! (staging lanes will be closed until all meetings are finished)

Sunday - Thursday
6:00 am ....Pits will open immediately upon arrival of the impound monitor.
7:00 am ....Racing on both courses will begin.

Friday
On this, OR the last day of racing, record runs will be in the evening.

More info can be found here
http://www.scta-bni.org/

Thought I'd give this a little bump as a reminder :cool2:

If you are going Saturday no big hurry, get there about noon. That's about perfect.

Just got back from the openning of Speedweek.

The highlight of the trip was meeting Andy Green..... who is Andy Green you ask? He hold's the Worlds Land Speed Record at 763 mph.

Anyhoo..... for a gear head it is a big treat, because on the entire planet there is only one person who can claim to be the fastest!

Andy was a really nice guy.

JCB Dieselmax currently has a high dollar effert out on the salt and are attempting to set a LSR for diesel power.

Here are some pics...

Thanks for the pics and I would like to see more if you got em. I had this on my calendar and almost made it.

You might be sorry you asked for more pics.... I took over 300 :haha:

:popcorn:

Utahn flying as he approaches record speed
Speed Week
Special to The Tribune

BONNEVILLE SALT FLATS - The racing surface at the Bonneville Salt Flats is in excellent condition - perhaps the best in 40 years, according to Speed Week meet organizers - smooth as a result of pounding rains in the winter and spring.

And a local driver has taken advantage of the conditions.

So far, the Royal Purple Streamliner is the fastest car at the meet, with a test run speed of 380 mph. The car, driven by Mike Nish and owned by Terry Nish Racing of Salt Lake City, is attempting to break the Summers brothers' record set in 1965, which is 409 mph on the BSF.

Nish will make the run at the record in a private race Sept. 27.

On Sunday, the car encountered problems with the parachute, but it's expected to make another test today. Racing continues through Friday.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Iceaxe

You might be sorry you asked for more pics.... I took over 300 :haha:

:popcorn:

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No way bring em! :clap:

:lol8:

Driver unhurt in big crash
Speed Week
The Salt Lake Tribune

BONNEVILLE SALT FLATS - Monday's Speed Week racing at the Salt Flats included one mishap involving the General Motors HHR Special. The vehicle, traveling at an unknown speed, flipped end over end several times. The driver walked away from the collision but was taken by ambulance to Salt Lake City for observation.

The most eventful run of the day was not a giant engine vehicle, but rather a Nebulous Theorem II, driven by Rick Yacoucci of Los Angeles. The car has a 90-cubic inch engine and was able to turn a 348 mph average, a new record for its class. The engine is roughly the size of that in a compact car.

Nebulous Theorem II
http://uutah.com/forum/files/sp03.jpg

Attendance at the annual Speed Week is up. There were an estimated 460 vehicle entries, which bring crews and drivers, and spectator admission was expected to reach 25,000 before the end of the week.

sweeet rides :2thumbs:

:popcorn:


take any movies ice?

I didn't take any movies. My cameara can do some video but it doesn't look good at the distance they keep you from the track. A good video camera would work.

The cool part is standing at mid course and hearing the sound when one of the big boys blows past at over 300 mph.

:nod:

A lot of the stuff on the salt is pretty standard equipment. But some of the rides you just know the driver makes a big clanking sound when he walks.

The line to make a LSR run is really long. I know Andy Green and the Diesel car were in line for over three hours. The one big benefit to this is they let the spectators mingle with the cars in the staging line...... heck, spectators can go any place they please except onto the actual course. After sitting in line for 3 hours the racers and crew get really bored, so they are more then happy to shot the shit with anyone who shows interest. Also, all the guys are really proud of their cars and just love to show you every inch if you are interested...... speedweek is a gear heads dream. Last I looked they had over 400 vehicles registered to make a LSR attempt. Most will make multiple attempts, those who Qualify to attempt a record make the second run first thing the next morning. To set an official record you must make two runs, one in each direction, the average speed between the runs is the official speed.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Iceaxe

Last I looked they had over 400 vehicles registered to make a LSR attempt. Most will make multiple attempts, those who Qualify to attempt a record make the second run first thing the next morning. To set an official record you must make two runs, one in each direction, the average speed between the runs is the official speed.

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so i assume this is a LSR for a particular category. what are the categories? or are there too many?

also above in the news clipping "So far, the Royal Purple Streamliner is the fastest car at the meet, with a test run speed of 380 mph. The car, driven by Mike Nish and owned by Terry Nish Racing of Salt Lake City, is attempting to break the Summers brothers' record set in 1965, which is 409 mph on the BSF. "

what's the big deal behind beating this record? is it because it uses internal combustion instead of jet/rocket? is this record the fastest internal combustion record?

Lots of different categories to set records in. The basic categories are Car or Motorcycle, Size of engine, type of fuel, type of engine and body shape.

Some cars will hold a dozen different records. For example the Royal Purple Streamliner already holds about a dozen different records. Crews will build a streamliner like Royal Purple and then swap different type and size engines into the car to chase different records.

The Summers Brothers record is famous for several reasons...... first being it has stood for over 40 years, second because it is the top wheel driven record from a normally aspirated engine. (No turbocharger, no supercharger, no rocket and no Jet).

Forty years ago, in November of 1965, the Summers Brothers Goldenrod, a 4-engined arrow of gold with an estimated 2400 horsepower on tap, was piloted by Bob Summers to a staggering 409.277 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. This amazing feat set a wheel driven Land Speed Record that has yet to be beaten in the Goldenrod's engine class.

Gosh..... if you really want to get a feel for how old the Summers Brothers record is just look at the pictures below. Not even color pictures....

cool, thanks for the schoolin'.

so why is the black rock desert where the current land speed records are held? why not the white rock desert? what gives? :ne_nau:

kool stuff.

Quote:

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so why is the black rock desert where the current land speed records are held?

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The Potash mining companies nearly destroyed the salt flats by draining the brine to extract potash. The Salt Flats were nearly lost and the salt was not deep enough or big enough to race on from the 80's to about 2000.

About 5 years ago an agreement was reached with the local mining company and they begin to pump the brine back onto the flats after they had extracted the potash and the salt flats began to recover.

Until this year the Salt has not been good enough to attempt the big records. if things keep improving the Salt Flats should again rein king of speed.

You can read more about the battle to save the salt here:
http://www.saltflats.com/save%20the%20salt.html

And I just want some of the tree huggers to realize the salt flats would now be gone if it were not for the gearheads stepping in to save them.

There appears to be a lot of interest in this topic so I started a new thread titled

Anatomy of a LSR attempt.
http://uutah.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=24124

I get the JCB Dieselmax team diaries emailed to me and I'll try and keep them up-to-date. I think some of you will find this fascinating.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Iceaxe

And I just want some of the tree huggers to realize the salt flats would now be gone if it were not for the gearheads stepping in to save them.

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i knew about some of the issues with salt, i guess i didn't realize how it made it difficult to perform for major speed records.
3 cheers for RACING SAVING THE SALT :clap: :clap: :clap:


damn potash :bandit2:

Yeah man, I have really enjoyed reading this stuff. :popcorn:

GM Engineer is Safe and Sound after Bonneville Speed Week Incident
For Release: August 14, 2006

WENDOVER, Utah

Speed Week: Numerous records set
The Salt Lake Tribune

BONNEVILLE SALT FLATS - Steve Atuell drove the "Hot Rod Magazine Special" to a 246.011 mph record Thursday at Speed Week on the salt flats. He was among several drivers setting records on the smooth hard salt.

Although Speed Week ends today, the British JCB DieselMax team will continue running until the end of the month in an attempt to break the diesel powered land-speed record.

Many old-timers expressed the opinion that the salt was like it was 40 years ago. Despite the great condition, the starting line was moved one mile to the east in the morning to give the cars better traction in the first mile.

This year's Speed Week is the biggest in history with more than 500 cars entered. There were more spectators than ever before. Many attribute the record number of entries and spectators to the movie "The World's Fastest Indian," which was filmed last year on the salt flats.

A driver was injured in a 244 mph crash just after 1 p.m. His name and condition were unknown at press time.