The sound and the fury of Speed Week begins next week on the world famous Bonneville Salt Flats.
Racers from all over the world have converged on Bonneville not to race against each other but against the clock.
Sponsored by the venerable southern California timing association this will be the 65th annual Speed Week.
The salt flats were first used for motor sports in 1912, but did not become truly popular until the 1930s when Ab Jenkins and Sir Malcolm Campbell competed to set land speed records.
In addition to those pioneers numerous other land speed records in various vehicle categories and classes have been set on the Bonneville speed way. In 1960, Mickey Thompson became the first American to break the 400 mph barrier, hitting 406.60 mph and surpassing John Cobb’s 1947 one-way Land speed record of 403 mph.
