These are photos I took at Bonneville Speed Week on Sunday 8/8/21. If you are interested in any of these photos in high resolution, please contact me. I am currently working on setting up an online shop to buy prints.
To see the article I wrote on Bonneville 2021, visit Holley Motorlife’s blog, HERE! The Bonneville Salt Flats is a special place and Speed Week is the quintessential event for wheel-driven cars trying to break land speed records. Cars are timed in a measured mile of their choice between mile 2 to mile 5 with a three-mile shutdown area. The Bonneville Speedway is part of the salt flats used for motorsports. The salt flat itself is a drying up ancient lake. As water evaporates, it leaves behind the minerals held within which creates the salt crust. Wind grinds the surface smooth, while the sun bakes the crust making an excellent racecourse.
Bonneville has some amazing human history outside of the speedway. The Donner party made a fatal decision to take a shortcut across the salt flats trying to get to California. Unfortunately, they did not bring enough water and lost some vital oxen and horses. They were delayed here which made them late to get to the Sierra Nevada mountains where they were stuck in a winter storm . . . and the rest is, as they say, history!
Save the Salt Foundation is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to protect the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah and to promote its history and motorsports legacy. The organization aspires to keep this national treasure available for future generations. Please take a moment to visit its site and donate to the cause to keep this national treasure!
Speed Week starts on Saturday of the first full weekend in August and lasts until Friday. If you plan to go, make sure you get there for the first few days at least. As the week goes on, cars end up going home, either because of mechanical failure or they are lucky enough to set a record. In order to get a record, the car must run faster than a current record for a qualifying pass, then they come back the next morning and back up the qualifying run for an average speed above the record they are trying to break.
