The Bonneville Salt Flats were first used for motor sports in 1912, though the venue gained significant popularity in the 1930s when Ab Jenkins and Sir Malcolm Campbell competed to set land speed records. The Bonneville Salt Flats Race Track is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Historically, the Utah Department of Transportation marked out the speedway at the start of each summer. Since at least the 1990s, event organizers have been responsible for track preparations, which include grading the salt and surveying timing trap distances. While the straightaway was originally marked with a broad black center line, organizers eventually moved to lines on either side and later transitioned to flags and cones due to rising costs. The last Speed Week to utilize black lines occurred in August 2009.
During Speed Week, organizers may run as many as four tracks with several timed miles, typically starting with the second mile and running to the fifth. The traditional 9-mile (14 km) courses have recently been impacted by environmental changes. In 2014 and 2015, Speed Week was cancelled due to deteriorating track conditions. Heavy rains caused mud to flow onto the flats from surrounding mountains, and the available racing surface was reduced to 2.5 miles (4.0 km).
The salt crust has also seen a significant reduction in thickness. Measured at as much as 3 ft (0.91 m) in the 1940s and 1950s, the depth was recorded at 2 in (0.051 m) in 2015. While the exact causes are not clear, evidence points toward salt mining and local climatic changes. Strategies such as pumping salt back onto the flats have been attempted but had no effect.
Numerous records have been established at the speedway across various vehicle classes. In 1960, Mickey Thompson became the first American to break the 400 miles per hour (640 km/h) barrier, reaching 406.60 mph (654.36 km/h) and surpassing John Cobb’s 1947 one-way record of 403 mph (649 km/h).
Cycling records have also been set at the venue:
In 1985, John Howard set a motor-paced record of 244 km/h (152 mph).
In 1995, Fred Rompelberg achieved 268.831 km/h (167.044 mph) using a dragster-paced bicycle.
In 2016, Denise Mueller-Korenek set a women's record of 147 mph (237 km/h).
In 2018, Mueller-Korenek set a new record for both men and women at 183.9 miles per hour (296.0 km/h).
The Bonneville Speedway hosts several other meetings throughout the year. According to the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association (USFRA), that organization hosts "World of Speed" in September, an event similar to Speed Week, as well as a "Test-n-Tune" event in the summer. Other events include:
Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials: Held in late August.
World Finals: An October event organized by the SCTA. This is a scaled-down version of Speed Week that often features cooler weather and drier salt, serving as the final opportunity of the year to enter the SCTA record book.
The speedway has been featured in various media, including the 2003 film The Brown Bunny and the 2005 film The World's Fastest Indian, which depicts Burt Munro's record-setting run on a modified Indian Scout motorcycle. In the series finale of Mad Men, the character Donald Draper is shown driving a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS in races at the Bonneville Speedway.
Gallery · 4 related images
