The Bonneville Salt Flats represent one of the most unusual places on earth, and one of the few where man can achieve unlimited speed.

Named after explorer Captain B.L.E. Bonneville, whose expeditions in the 1830s proved that the area was part of a huge prehistoric lake that once covered one-third of Utah, the Salt Flats stretch for 30,000 acres and are located an hour’s drive west of Salt Lake City, close to the Utah/Nevada border.

Today they can be reached by Interstate 80, but they were once infamous as the place where the fated Donner-Reed party, seeking a shortcut to California in 1846, suffered privations that led them to cannibalism in order to survive.

Promoter W.D. Rishel was the first man to appreciate the Salt Flats’ potential for car racing while scouting a cycle race course from New York to San Francisco in 1896. Later he convinced daredevil racer ‘Terrible’ Teddy Tetzlaff to attempt a speed record there, and in 1914 Tetzlaff drove a Blitzen Benz at an alleged 141.73 mph to set an unofficial mark.

The Salt Flats achieved international fame in the Thirties through the efforts of Salt Lake City racer Ab Jenkins who set a number of endurance records in his Mormon Meteor. Tales of the firmness of the surface attracted legendary land speed record breaker Sir Malcolm Campbell, who on 3 September 1935 became the first man to top 300 mph with a speed of 301.129 mph in his Bluebird. Campbell was succeeded later that decade by fellow Britons George Eyston and John Cobb. Until 1982, and with the exception of Donald Campbell who survived a crash there at 360 mph in August 1960, the Bonneville Salt Flats were deemed by record seekers to be the only place on earth on which to pursue ultimate speed on land. In an explosion of speed in the mid-Sixties, American Craig Breedlove became the first man to break the 400, 500, and 600 mph barriers there.

In 1982 flooding at Bonneville obliged Richard Noble to relocate his pure jet Thrust2 to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, which eventually supplanted the Salt Flats as the perfect venue for attacks on the outright record. But since Nolan White found that the desert’s sandy playa surface was unsuitable for wheel-driven cars following test runs there with his Spirit of Autopower streamliner in 1983, Bonneville has remained the ideal venue on which to challenge for wheel-driven honours.

The reason for this is the restorative action of Mother Nature, as wind and water combine to create a hard, flat surface.The Salt Flats usually flood around November, and it takes until July for them to dry out again. As the water slowly evaporates, the smoothing action of the wind creates a flat salt surface. As it dries further pressure ridges can develop, creating a buckling effect. Where salt has built up around the bodies of dead animals blown on to the lake, small salt mounds can also develop. These must be cleared before high speeds are feasible. This is a relatively simple but painstaking task that entails dragging the course with a length of heavy railway track to scrape away any aberrations.

Bonneville hosts three main speed events, between August and October. This year Bonneville Speedweek, run jointly by the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) and Bonneville Nationals Inc (BNI), will be held on 12-18 August, followed by World of Speed, run by the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association (USFRA), on 13-16 September. Finally, the SCTA-BNI will hold the World Finals week on 11-14 October.

In ideal conditions - preferably a relatively cool morning before the sun draws moisture to the surface, and minimal wind - the mixture of potassium, magnesium lithium and sodium chloride (ordinary table salt) in the surface can provide a hard course on which racers can seek their vehicles’ maximum straightline performance.

One of the greatest challenges of record breaking is to achieve such perfect conditions. And that is down to pure luck. A team can research, test and develop to the nth degree to create the perfect high-speed automobile, but success ultimately remains totally dependent on the prevailing weather and course conditions. In that realm, Mother Nature holds all the high cards.