The Japanese have an expression "it is better to travel hopefully than to arrive". In my case the trip to the Salt Flats in the North West corner of Utah was very much in the travelling hopefully category…………..but as if to prove the rule by exception, arrival has been better than the journey.

Set up day concluded with a show of cars in the parking lot of Wendover's Nugget Casino and of course there is another look at the Plymouth with the Propane pipes, little things in my case…………..

Little things, yes, I am much taken by the details that are lavished on the cars on Bonneville by their owners…..so here are a few examples as seen outside the Gambling Den.

Simple enough message………….

Everwhere you look there are cars in view.

And this being Bonneville, there also salt, and more salt……………

Did I mention salt?

And with a pinch of salt, there is often a grain of truth.

And the other purpose of showing out the cars is to find old friends, catch up on who is in and who is out, figure out who is MIA.

Of course being on the Nevada side of the town, a beer or two can be shared in public, along with the tales from the road.

Some tales are taller than others, or maybe not………………….

And there is no connection, well the Authorities tell us so, it must be true.

Up with the lark and down to get filled up. Of course there is something to see even in this most mundane situation, have a good look at the petrol tank.

Yes, an early example of re-cycling, it is an old Miller Beer Keg. The Health and Safety crowd would have a fit of the vapours over this, but to me it is all aprt of the charm of this event.

Onto the salt and straight over to tech inspection. More unlikely candidates, an Alfa Romeo?????

Jim Steck built up the 91 Spyder. It has a twin cam 155 engine and is indecently fast, clocking 222mph in the past………….more on this elegant speedster later.

Then it was time to look around the pit area all three miles of it. This camouflaged 911 would look the part on the Serengeti never mind the Salt Lake. At the time I thought the gesture was very Michael Delaney rather than Winston Churchill, I am relieved to see that decorum was maintained.

Next on to the weird and wonderful……………what was the purpose of this contraption? Perhaps dragging on the Everglades?

This somehow looks very SpeedHunters……………new staff transport.

You can run but you can't hide………….

Escaping straight from the set of the Wacky Racers……….

Perhaps the oddest sight on the salt was this boat…………..around 10,000 years ago there had been a giant inland lake with a depth of 100 feet stretching for 100 miles, but there does not seem any signs of this returning soon, still you can't be too careful.

Bonneville is a cosmopolitan affair these days, drawing like-minded folk from the four corners of the globe. Antipodians, Ross Dawson and Nick Oaks are spending three weeks in the USA "educating the locals on Kiwi values". I am too polite to speculate what exactly these might be, but I am pretty sure that decent grog comes somewhere high up the list. There was also a bunch of Aussies on hand to support these two in their sledging of this poor Pom, typical that England were rubbish in the cricket this week.

As an antidote to this set of oddities, there was perhaps the closest thing yet to the pure spirit of the Bonneville Speed Week. Powered by a 54 Olds and in street legal form, at least in Oregon.

And that brings us neatly to the reason that we are all here basting in the pan.

 Yes some folks have to race……………..

The heartbeat rises and intensifies………………….

The BANG, we have take off………………..

Then suddenly it is Chute Time……………………….

In case we need reminding it is recreation………….the Man tells us so.

And this is the Yellow Brick Road……………

Record Return Runs begin at 7.00am tomorrow……………….better set the alarm.

John Brooks