Bonneville Speed Week
The Bonneville Speed Week is an event in the US state of Utah , the year of the Bonneville Nationals Inc. is discharged (BNI). The aim is to achieve the best possible speed records for six days in August on the Bonneville Flats with vehicles of all kinds.
The prerequisite for driving on the Salt Flats is that they are dry - this is usually the case three months a year. In order to have the short distance of a "short course", the organizers need at least a piece of six and a half kilometers of dry salt. Ideally, a stretch of more than eleven kilometers is used. In 2014 the Speed Week was canceled due to the flooding of the salt lake, and in 2015 it was canceled due to too many swampy spots. To set a record, two runs in opposite directions are required, times are stopped by the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA). If you beat the existing record in a qualification run, the vehicle will be kept and allowed to attempt a record the next morning. In 2006 almost 500 participants registered and more than 150 records were broken.
The first Bonneville Speed Week took place in 1949 on the initiative of the SCTA. Since then, she has organized the event, for which there are no fixed facilities on the salt: no boxes, no snack bars for the spectators, even the timekeeping tower and the toilets are transported to the location. The closest town is Wendover . The Bonneville Salt Flats are named after Captain Louis Benjamin Eulalie de Bonneville (approx. 1796–1878), who led an expedition to the western United States.
Other events on the Bonneville Salt Flats are the World of Speed in September and the World Finals in October . In addition to the SCTA / BNI, the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association (USFRA) is the organizer. In addition, the Shootout event was launched in 2006 by Cook's Land Speed Events , which is intended to appeal to teams who want to achieve FIA / FIM -certified records. The realization of this event depends on there being enough participants to pay the high fees. The calculation is based on five cars and five motorcycles. In 2018 this crowd did not come together for the first time, the shootout did not take place. Although the salt surface was in remarkably good condition this year, there were fast journeys, with one special feature: the start was at point I-80 towards Floating Island , where the solid salt layer was relatively thin. For a return trip it was not possible to start powerfully from there and the prospect of a record under FIA conditions was therefore rather slim.
Individual evidence
- ^ Homepage of the Southern California Timing Association
- ↑ Speed freaks in the salt desert , Spiegel Online 2006
- ↑ Jonathan Lopez: 2015 Bonneville Salt Flats Speed Week Canceled Due To Weather Conditions , website "topspeed.com" (accessed on August 6, 2015)
- ^ A b Lindsay Brooke: Sunshine, Salt and Speed. The Fastest Show on Earth , The New York Times, September 10, 2006
- ^ Louise Ann Noeth: Bonneville. The Fastest Place onEarth , MBI Publishing Company, St. Paul 2002, p. 42
- ↑ Noeth 2002, p. 11
- ^ Louise Ann Noeth: Bonneville Salt Flats - Fast Facts About the Fastest Place on Earth , Automobile Magazine, February 2009
- ↑ "landspeedevents.com" website
- ^ Daniel Strohl: With cancellation of this year's Bonneville Shootout, opportunity for FIA land-speed records dries up , Hemmings Daily, September 19, 2018