Once again, it's time to look at the salt. Will it or won't it bond? Will it hold the weight of a 400-mile-per-hour race car or will it turn into salt-shaker salt?
Currently, the salt's too wet to tell. But, salt-watchers are concerned at this point.Last year, for the first time to anyone's memory, the salt acted like salt. It got soft and mushy. It wasn't its old rock-hard self. Contamination by other minerals was thought to be the reason. This year there are signs of more contamination.
Which may not seem so bad to some, but lose Bonneville and you take the very heart out of land-speed racing.
For the past 30 years race drivers have been voicing their concerns over the deteriorating layer of salt on Bonneville.
"We are," says Rick Vesco, veteran land-speed racer and head of a group trying to save the salt flats, "at a very critical stage. If we don't do something now it may be too late."
When racers first came to Bonneville during the early part of the century, there was a thick coating of salt. Today, there are places where the salt is so thin dirt is showing through.
Last year, instead of the salt crystals bonding into a raceable surface, there were places where the salt broke apart and became "mushy." A summer tune-up was stopped last July after only a day and a half of racing. Then "Speed Week" was canceled in August and the "World of Speed" was forced to give up its long track and move to a much shorter course on another area of the salt in September.
This year it appears there may be more contamination.
"We analyzed the surface water and found it contained mud and high concentrations of magnesium. We'll need to wait until the salt is dry before we'll be able to see what this will do to the salt. Usually, having water on the surface is a good sign. In this case, however, it may not be," said Vesco.
Racers have argued that the mining of potash around the salt flats has been the main cause behind the thinning salt crust. A recent study, in fact, places 60 percent of the blame on the deteriorating track on Reilly Corporation, a commercial operation that pulls 1.5 million tons of salt from the flats each year.
Reilly has, in fact, agreed to begin a program to replace the salt. When approved, the company will mix water with unwanted salt from its potash-mining operation and in the fall spray the mixture over the salt flats.
When the water evaporates in the summer, Vesco said, it will leave behind about 44/100th of an inch of salt on the surface each year.
New threats of contamination, however, could jeopardize any attempt to save the salt.
Also, it will take Reilly about 14 months from the date of final approval to begin the pumping operations. Vesco is worried it may come too late to save the world's greatest natural race track.
Over the next several months, a close watch will be placed on the salt. Its condition could worsen or it could improve. Whichever way it turns, Vesco says the group working to save the salt will continue to try and pump life back into the world-famous track.
The first event for 1995, the Season Open, scheduled July 20, was canceled because of standing water on the track. The next major, Speed Week, is scheduled Aug. 19-25.
The salt flats' potential for racing was first recognized in 1896 by W. D. Rishel, who was scouting a bicycle race course from New York to San Francisco. Rishel returned and convinced daredevil Teddy Tezlaff to attempt an automobile speed record on the flats. Tezlaff drove a Blitzen Benz 141.73 miles per hour for an unofficial speed record in 1914.
The flats drew international attention in the 1930s when Utah driver Ab Jenkins lured British racer Sir Malcolm Campbell there to run.
By 1949, the raceway was the standard course for world land speed records. On this natural straightaway, the 300, 400, 500 and 600 mile per hour land-speed records were broken.
In the 1960s, Bonneville drew world attention. Jet powered vehicles and names like Craig Breedlove (600.6 mph) and Art Arfons (575.55 mph) captured the imagination of millions. In 1970, Gary Gabolich set the existing world speed record of 622.4 mph in his car, the "Blue Flame."
Since the first speed record attempts in 1914, hundreds of records have been set and broken in every imaginable type and style of vehicle.
Bonneville Salt Flats, located about 120 miles west of Salt Lake City, is one of the most unique natural features in the world. It is a 30,000 acre bed of salt administered over by the Bureau of Land Management.
Each year, hundreds of cars and drivers converge on the salt to race for land-speed records. Everything from large trucks to single-cylinder motorcycles have come to the salt over the years.