The Bonneville Salt Flats Is The Craziest Race You May Have Never Heard Of
There's a race where people are close to pushing 500 mph. While NASCAR's 2024 finale reached 2.92 million views and the Formula 1 World Championship 2024 saw 30 million fans tune in, speed demons from all over the world are heading to Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats to push their vehicles to the limit with fewer fanfare and no prize money at all.
The Bonneville Salt Flats is a completely flat field of salt over 30,000 acres, definitely unlike any track you've ever seen. Passing Salt Lake City and then the Great Salt Lake, you'll eventually reach the Bonneville Salt Flats, left over from an ancient body of water that has since dried up, Lake Bonneville. Within the flats is the Bonneville Speedway, where vehicles take advantage of the perfectly flat and salted surface to break land speed records. Last year, around 350 vehicles showed up after a two-year hiatus to see who could finally reach the incredible speed.
What is the fastest speed reached at Bonneville Salt Flats?
The World of Speed brings all types of vehicles to the Bonneville Salt Flats — streamliners, hot rods, roadsters, belly tankers, motorcycles — all with the goal of breaking records in various categories throughout the weekend. One of the most iconic vehicles is the Speed Demon, a piston-powered (yes, the engines usually found in airplanes), wheeled car that has won the award for fastest Speed Week car 10 times since 1949. The Speed Demon's fastest time was 481.576 mph, driven by recently passed George Poteet. Last year, his team reached 446.716 mph in an attempt to make the racing icon proud.
While the Speed Demon is currently the fastest piston engine vehicle to have raced at the Bonneville Salt Flats, the fastest ever speed reached during World of Speed was 600.601 mph. In 1965, Craig Breedlove brought his GE J79 jet engine-powered Spirit of America Sonic 1 vehicle to the Bonneville Salt Flats to break his previous record of 555.485 mph. The Spirit of America Sonic 1 was shaped exactly like a rocket flipped on its side, dubbing him the "Astronaut on Wheels." He didn't quite reach the all-time land speed record set by the SSC Thrust of 763 mph, but Breedlove is still the fastest racer at the World of Speed all this time later.