No speed limits: Drivers say nothing compares to racing at Bonneville

Speed, of course, is the objective. How drivers get it is the lure of Bonneville. That and the salt itself. The salt, racers claim, gets in their blood. Nothing like it in the world. Nothing can compare to running on miles of a flat, white salt bed at speeds close to or exceeding world-record levels.

That's why the Carter family, Glen and Ed, have been coming to Bonneville for 39 years. And why Rick Vesco came back to run the same car his father did 51 years ago. It's why Skip Higginbotham has been coming to the salt for 49 years. And why John Puryear came to Bonneville for the first time this year to fulfill a 44-year-old dream.

This year, Speed Week drew more than 525 cars and motorcycles, with drivers and several thousand spectators over the course of seven days.

It is, said JoAnn Carlson, media liaison for the Southern California Timing Association — the organization responsible for Speed Week — an event becoming more popular every year.

"More exposure is one reason. Every year we get more new cars, more new racers and more and more interest from the younger generation," she noted.

"I think when we do the numbers this will also be our largest spectator audience ever."

As usual, most of the entries came from within the United States, with a large number from Canada. Carlson said there were also eight entries from the United Kingdom, 11 from New Zealand, and a few from Germany, France and Scotland.

Because of the large number of entries, three tracks instead of the usual two were open this year. The long course, for the fastest cars — 200-plus miles per hour — was eight miles long. The two shorter courses for lesser speeds were five miles long. More than 2,000 runs were timed over the seven days, some for world records.

Puryear said he first read about Bonneville in a Hot Rod magazine in 1964, "and I've dreamt about running here ever since. Making the first pass was the answer to a 44-year-old dream come true." He and his son, Sean, drove 1,400 miles from Texas to race at Bonneville.

Puryear and Sean came to Bonneville in 2006 and 2007 as spectators.

"We bought the car and modified it over the winter. My dad and I have been working on the car for about 10 months. Driving it on the salt was a dream," said Sean, an engineering student.

The record they were after was for AA-gas lakester — 285 mph. Sean said the car is capable of 300 miles per hour when all is in perfect running order.

Terry Nish and his son, Mike, were on the salt to "shake out the cobwebs," in preparation for a September run on a record they've been chasing for roughly 16 years. The Nishes reserved the salt track the past two years for a special run at a mark of 409 miles per hour set in 1965 and as of yet is unbroken. They have reserved it again this year, starting on Sept. 22.

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