1966 Bonneville Salt Flats Speed Trials - 4-Page Vintage Motorcycle Article

Description

1966 Bonneville Salt Flats Speed Trials - 4-Page Vintage Motorcycle Article
Original, Vintage Magazine Article
Page Size: Approx. 8" x 11"  (21 cm x 28 cm)
Condition: Good
The Old Salts
gather once again to set records
of one kind or another.
BONNEVILLE ’66
THROUGH ONE of those unexpected
quirks of fate, the famous (or infa-
mous, if you were there last year) Bonne-
ville Salt Flats were in near-perfect order
for record runs during the 1966 National
Speed Trials. Winter rains had flooded the
salt flats entirely, which smoothed and
leveled them, and then a relatively dry
spring and early summer brought the
water level dowfi below the surface of the
caked salt. That left the salt smooth and
dry, which is the way it's supposed to be
but seldom is. Usually, the rain/dry bal-
ance is wrong, and one finds humps, ruts.
The unstreamlined Murray and Cook
Triumph ran 191 mph.
wet-spots and often enough a bunch of
puddles. Last year, the salt flats were ac-
tually submerged in brine, and participants
spent most of the annual "speed week”
waiting for things to dry.
Anyway, conditions in 1966 were such
that a beautiful 9-mile run over hard, dry,
smooth salt was available. Rarely in years
past have the speed-merchants had it so
good. In fact, according to one of the old-
timer officials, it was the best salt in seven
long years.
At least, it was the best with regard to
speed; it was the same old stull in terms
of the terrible damage done to machinery.
We should explain here that the bulk of
that oversize salt-cake is not the familiar
sodium chloride one sprinkles on an egg.
No indeed! It is mostly potash, or potas-
sium chloride. Very unfriendly stuff. As a
matter of fact, it will rust, erode or simply
rot most of the substances known to man.
And, it has a particular appetite for those
things t-hat go into the making of a motor-
cycle. It’s wonderful. However, as some-
one once said about a suspect gambling
den, “It’s the only game in town.” At pres-
ent. the Bonneville Salt Flats are the only
area large enough to give any motorcycle
enough room to do everything it is ever to
do about top speed. Maybe the new La-
guna Salada course (on a Baja California
dry-lake bed) will prove to be an accept-
able substitute?
One aspect of the Bonneville scene that
will be hard to improve upon is the social
life. Actually, most of the people who go
there (in either the car or motorcycle set)
are at least as interested in downing a few
drams with old friends as they are in going
fast. In the evening, all hands gather al a
watering spot called the “Stale Line”
which is a molcl/restaurant/casino/booz-
ery. Wendover, the “town” at the edge of
the salt flats where everyone slays, is
mostly in dry, puritan Utah, but the Stale
Line is just over the border in rooty-tootin'
Nevada.
Yet another aspect that rates mention.
Another Triumph, which Don Harris rode
to a record, etc.
if not comment, is the altitude of most of
the motorcyclists at Bonneville regarding
the business of going fast. Most of those
at the Speed Trials arc really not very
much interested in speed. Not in the ab-
solute sense, anyway. The average rider al
Bonneville is there with something fairly
close to a “stocker,” and not a very fast
one at that. The man who shows up with
something intended for 150-mph plus is
rare, and that is rather remarkable consid-
ering the nature of the “course.” When,
you get right down to the nitty-gritty, the
thrill of going fast depends greatly on the
possible consequences, and al Bonneville
you are in somewhat less danger than the
average pedestrian crossing a little-traveled
country road unless your bike is really Hy-
ing. Al 125 mph, you can fall asleep from
boredom. So, Bonneville is mostly a tun-
ers' contest; fun in a low-key sort of way.
but nothing to get all worked up about...
13407-6611-04