Land Speed Records Fall at Bonneville Salt Flats

Speed Week is underway at the Bonneville Salt Flats. The New York Times has this report, under this headline:

Ford Fuel Cell Car Goes 200 M.P.H. at the Bonneville Salt Flats

Here are excerpts:

Mr. (Mujeeb) Ijaz is ecstatic: “We set the first record for fastest fuel cell electric car. We had a five-mile run. We were at 204 m.p.h. at mile four and 207 m.p.h. at the mile-five cool down line. We have Champagne going on right now. I wish you were here.”

It’s Speed Week at Bonneville, a yearly ritual of triple-digit one-upmanship across an oblivion of white salt. One racer has already crashed at 170 m.p.h. Mr. Ijaz, manager of fuel cell vehicle engineering at Ford, and his team are running a fuel cell-powered electric car. Announced to the world in July, the Ford Hydrogen Fusion 999 is named after the car that Henry Ford drove to a land speed record in 1904. Mr. Ford went 91.37 m.p.h. This week, Mr. Ijaz’s goal was to hit 200.

Here are photos from Speed Week.

This Deseret Morning News article gave a good preview of events. Here are excerpts:

A record number of drivers preregistered for this year's event on Bonneville Salt Flats. The early count was around 520, which is about 100 more than last year.

Some suggest all this new interest is because of increased publicity on salt-flats racing. Others think it may have something to do with the movie "The World's Fastest Indian," released a few years ago, which portrays the life and Bonneville record attempts of Burt Munro of New Zealand in the 1950s.

The next event at Bonneville will be the annual World of Speed, Sept 12-15.

This website has good information about Salt Flats racing and events.