Stayt`ie wrote:g`day sum, when i was at bonneville last year for bubs, i recon the temperature was very similar if not the same to gairdner, even at night, although sleeping in a airconditioned motel room was a lot more comfortable than the swag,,,, but there is something more adventureous `bout sleepin under the stars in a swag
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when driving from salt lake city out to wendover, me mate and i were talking about how some of the country reminded us of the terrain between broken hill and the south aussie border,, but your mountains are far`in huge
one thing that i did notice at bonneville is how thin the salt was, in some (most) areas you can actually see the gray mud beneath, also how rough the surface is (potholes on acess road),,, at gairdner it is just thick white salt, and apart from small salt waves, moon rings, (small salt build up thingos), you could almost run on gairdner without dragging it
no expanshion or contraction ridges to be seen...
I knew I should of gone to BUB's last year, would have gotten to meet you.
Speed Week is usually about 10 deg. F hotter during the day than BUB. It is starting to cool down by then.
The salt at b'ville can really be different year to year, month to month, day to day and morning to afternoon. Last year was bad, not as bad as '05, but Speed Week hardly happened because of the water on the track and the water to get out there...............
................... all the water on the salt and the wet salt getting to the track part got quite pot-holed from all the traffic. The course also went away after a few days and I understand the conditions at BUB weren't much better. The year before at BUB during the shoot-out......
http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner ... index.html
............. the track was as good as it gets.
Unfortunately our government does not recognize the significance of the salt flats like they do other natural resources like our national parks and they allow it to be mined for potash which is in the salt. In the 40's the salt was over 18 inches (1/2 meter thick) now at it's thickest it is about 6 inches (15 centimeters, if I got that right). There is the salt pumping program that has helped to get some of the salt from the potash plant back onto the salt after they have removed the potash, but it will never be the same in our life times.
There is suppose to be another area of good un-mined salt to the north in the same basin, but you can't get there by driving north on the salt as that turns to mud. The only access is overland and I think now that is only by jeep and you couldn't get a trailer there now. Opening a road to there has been looked into a little I believe.
Back to your comment about the salt. Some years it is very hard and flat and takes very little effort to make a track out of. Other times there are a lot of smaller pressure cracks and ridges in the salt that have to be knocked down and then like last year it might have just barely dried out before the meet. The only good thing about the government is they leave it up to us pretty much to make the decision if a race can be put on. They don't care about it getting tore up. I don't know about your flats, but b'ville naturally goes under water every winter and the surface kind of repairs itself. The problem is in how that water evaporates in the late spring and into the summer. We want it gone, but at a slow rate to get a good surface.
c ya,
Sum
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". Anyway I'm coming next year as a spectator, so that shouldn't hurt 
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