BONNEVILLE SALT FLATS — It gets in the blood — the salt, that is — and it never leaves. Like a craving for sweets. Drivers come here each year for another run, another mile per hour, another record . . . another broken motor, another stripped gear, another failed attempt.
Each year, like summer, they arrive. Cars and trucks pulling trailers filled with old cars and trucks with a new part or a new idea or a new design.
What they want is a new world land speed record. What they admit to is a chance to meet with old friends; see if what common sense says shouldn't work does, in fact, work; feed an acquired taste to go fast; and, maybe, just maybe, as a bonus, get a world record.
The first record run on the Bonneville Salt Flats was made Aug. 13, 1914.
With about 100 race enthusiasts looking on, brought to the flats on a special train, Teddy Tetzlaf covered a half-mile course in his Blitzen Benz at 147 mph.
Soon after the salt flats became the stage for the world's fastest cars and drivers.
In summer 1948, the Southern California Timing Association booked time on the salt. Since then, Speed Week has been one of the largest racing productions in the country. This year more than 350 entries lined up to race.
But it wasn't until the arrival of the high-speed rocket cars that the reputation of the salt flats really soared.
In October 1963, Craig Breedlove pushed his car to a top speed of 413.45 mph, then came back later in the month to turn 526.28 mph. Within a week, Art Arfons had the record up to 536.71 mph. Then in 1970, Gary Gabelich pushed the world speed record to 622.407. That was the last of the big runs on the salt.
Deteriorating salt conditions forced the high-speed cars to a dry lake bed in California. Where drivers once had 11 miles of salt track to run on, they are now confined to seven miles.
If it were for the speed records alone, the lure of the salt would not be so addicting. There are far fewer records than attempts.
Carl Heap of Grant's Pass, Ore., for example, has been within reach of a record seven times, but something always goes wrong before he can convince the clocks. This year it was a simple squirt from an oil can into an air shifter that slowed his diesel truck from a 244 mph record run.
Bill Stephens of Porterville, Calif., has been bringing his 1954 Hudson Hornet to the salt for six years. With what he calls a "50-year-old motor that's been sophisticated," his best speed is four miles off the 139 mph record.
"With a car and engine this old, you end up making a lot of parts and running into a lot of dead ends, but it's worth it. It gets in your blood . . . a chance to go fast and set a record," he said as he sat under a canopy to break the scorching heat. "I'll be back next year."
Gary Allen of Liberty, Utah, came to Bonneville in 1992 to help out but instead got hooked. He went home, put an ad in the Big Nickel, bought a car for $180 and began racing. Last year he qualified at 242 mph, but his vehicle broke a camshaft during its record run. Meanwhile, another car bumped the record to 249.
"I'm a few miles off. Just a few. But that's only part of it. I've heard people say that coming to the salt is a spiritual thing. The salt keeps drawing you back," Allen said as he worked to get his car ready to run.
"What it's all about is you come out and make a lot of fast runs and have a lot of fun. A lot of people come out and never set a record. They get a license to go fast and help other people get a license. They all go home and say they can now go 175 miles per hour on the salt. That's what it's all about."
Bob Stahl of Huntington Beach, Calif., is in his eighth year on the salt with a 1965 street-legal Volkswagen Beetle, complete with headlights, original headliner and license plate. His best speed is 148 mph. The record he wants is 160.
"For me there's a certain fascination that comes with taking a car made to hold a 19-horsepower motor and building it up to 500 horsepower, and a car made to go 60 mph and going 160 mph. It's fun. It's addicting . . . and I'll be back," he said from his pit area on the flats.
Records are set, of course, in everything from long, rocket-shaped streamliners to round Beetles to cars that don't even look like cars.
Take Al Teague, for example. Once the fastest man ever to drive a car powered by a piston-driven engine, his record of nearly 410 mph stood untouched for nearly a decade. It was broken last year by Rick and Don Vesco of Brigham City, at 427.832. Teague was back on the salt last week to try for another record — 356 mph using a smaller "B" engine. He set the record at 381 mph.
That very afternoon he rolled the car out for what he called a "fun run," which in this case was a try at the 400 mph mark. Earlier, he came out of the timing lights at 390 during a practice run. Hitting 400, he felt, was possible. Instead, he peaked at 384.
Teague, from Brea, Calif., has been coming to the salt since 1976. He set his high-speed record in 1991.
Each year he questions whether or not he'll be back. Each year he returns.
"For me it's the competition," he said, looking back as his crew readied the car. "I come here to see what's new and to see if this old car can keep up with the new ones. It's almost 30 years old . . . and still it keeps on going. The engine's getting tired now. We've put in eight good runs. After this run, just for fun, we'll stop.
"I keep telling my wife that this is it, but it gets in your blood. Will I be back? I don't know. No, I don't think so. Then again, you never know."
Tom Burkland of Logan has been chasing the title Teague held for four years. He first came to the salt with his father back in 1969. His best high-speed run has been 388 mph.
He said he gets frustrated at times, "but the challenge keeps bringing me back . . . to keep coming back until I fix it and get it right."
For many the racing is a bonus. Nine members of the Good Guys Club out of California have been chasing their own record for 15 years in a street-legal roadster. A dozen times they've caught it and moved it up a notch or two. Currently it stands at 275 mph.
Fifty years ago, Pontiac brought a new car to the salt flats, tested it and named it the "Bonneville." The company brought it back on the anniversary to try and regain the stock-production speed record of 209. The crew left the salt last week, happy with a 196.
Every person out for Speed Week has a story; every person has a reason to come back again and again. Because deep down, they all say, the salt is addicting.
E-MAIL: grass@desnews.com