On August 19, 1939, my grandfather, Carlisle Wight, drove all the way from Salt Lake City, Utah, to the famous Bonneville Salt Flats to see the emerging sport of land speed racing with his very own eyes. He drove 186 miles one way to a makeshift course high in the Utah desert only to doze off shortly after he arrived and sleep through the fastest runs of the week. I know this because my mother recently transcribed his journals, and she wanted to make sure my trip to Bonneville didn't suffer the same slumberous fate. So I made sure to pack a couple of extra Red Bulls before I set out for what land speed racers call the world's fastest racetrack to attend this year's World Finals of Speed. I was hoping to come face to face with some of the fastest sportbikes in the land and, unlike granddad, I had no intention of snoozing through any 300-plus-mph runs.
In the end, oversleeping was the least of my problems. Instead, I arrived at the flats with some sort of intestinal upset that had me backfiring through both my intake and exhaust. Is this what the old-timers meant when they talked about salt fever? But I stuck it out, dedicated to breaking the family curse and seeing some very high-speed runs with my own eyes. In the end it was worth it. I watched John Noonan devastate the 1650cc Partial Streamliner/Blown Fuel class record of 186.415 mph with a salt-shaking, 246.818-mph pass on his street-legal Suzuki Hayabusa, and I also witnessed Jim Odom's fearsome, twin-Hayabusa-engined, turbocharged streamliner achieve an unbelievable 328.304 mph for a record in the 3000cc Streamliner/Blown Gas class (on pump gas!). These were just two of the 19 motorcycle records broken at this year's event on bikes ranging from 50cc minis to Odom's streamliner. Speed enthusiasts came to Bonneville from across North America to challenge the laws of aerodynamics, internal combustion and our old friend Murphy in pursuit of the exclusive, elusive "World's Fastest" title.
Although big-speed bikes such as Odom's and Noonan's attract the most attention at the World Finals of Speed, the SCTA offers record-worthy classes for every possible mutation of two-wheeled vehicle. There are more than 15 displacement classes, ranging from 50cc to unlimited, broken down into around 30 subcategories determined by the bike's shape (naked, partially streamlined, streamlined), chassis configuration (production or modified), type of fuel used (gasoline or otherwise) and induction (blown or not). To the uninitiated, this rule matrix can seem maddeningly complex, but racers themselves only see opportunities.
Building a competitive motorcycle is only half of going fast at the Salt Flats-the other component is mastering the unique (and unforgiving) conditions of the salt itself. Utah's Great Salt Desert is unlike any other place on earth, a vast, 100-square-mile wasteland that more closely resembles another planet than a useful racing environment. The greatest challenge is finding and maintaining good traction on the notoriously slippery salt surface, especially with such high-horsepower vehicles. Another is managing wind resistance on the desolate, wide-open desert.
Experienced racers say there is no other feeling like flying at insane speeds over the salt, but it's hardly the point-and-shoot experience most imagine. Achieving record speeds demands technique and skill, says Jason McVicar, a tuner and rider from Canada who has set 22 land speed records and is a member of the elite 200-mph club at Bonneville, El Mirage and Maxton on his 215-mph Yamaha R1. "When you get going really fast the bike just floats over the surface," McVicar says. "The rear wheel is hunting for traction and the front wheel is gently sliding from side to side, and the bike gets into a nice slow weave that at first is really uncomfortable. But as you get used to it, it becomes second nature." Sounds simple enough, until you remember this is all happening at well over 200 mph!