All indicators point to a good week of racing out on the Bonneville Salt Flats for Speedweek this year.
According to the Southern California Timing Association’s Web site, crews finished a second trip to prepare the salt, July 27, and noted nothing but good conditions.
“We had our courses surveyed and did some more preliminary dragging,” the crew wrote on the Web site. “The salt was dry, hard and smooth. While we were there, a few sprinkles fell on us, but that was quickly dissipated by the very hot weather. We have prepared eight miles on the long course and six miles on the short course, all looks great for the event.”
The long-range weather forecast predicts highs in the 90s and 100s, plenty of sun and no chance of the sort of precipitation that shortened last year’s event.
Speedweek this year runs from August 12-18 at the Bonneville Salt Flats outside Wendover, Utah. As of this writing, 370 cars and 99 bikes from 41 states and a total of five countries have registered to race – well more than last year’s count at this time. Expect racing results on the SCTA’s Web site or on www.landracing.com
General Motors, which hyped its involvement in land speed racing over the last several years, hasn’t made the same noise this year, but it will be there with three entries: the 2005 Cobalt (entry number 2005, competing in G/BFALT), the 2006 HHR (entry number 2006, competing in G/BFCC) and the Ecotec Lakester (entry number 2028, competing in G/BGL). In a press release earlier this week, GM officials said they hoped to be the first team—using the Cobalt—to set a record on the salt using E85 ethanol.
(This post originally appeared in the August 10, 2006, issue of the Hemmings eWeekly Newsletter.)