Officials for Bonneville’s Speedweek, the largest land-speed racing event in the United States, are expecting more than 500 entries for this year’s meet and have made at least one major change to accommodate all those racers.
Because many racers complained last year about the long lines due to the record number of entries and just two courses to run all the racers, officials from the Southern California Timing Association will add a second long course, making three courses total this year. The two long courses should also measure eight miles each — an extra mile over the long course last year. The one short course will remain at five miles.
If the pre-entry list is any indication, the number of racers this year will eclipse last year’s record number of 490 entries. For 2007, 347 cars and 146 bikes from 40 states and three other countries have already combined for 520 pre-entries (some vehicles run in multiple classes, thus the seemingly inflated total figure). For a complete pre-entry list, visit scta-bni.org/Bonneville/PreEntries.html.
Speedweek 2007 will take place August 11-17.
(This post originally appeared in the July 19, 2007, issue of the Hemmings eWeekly Newsletter.)