Salt conditions for 2026?

[desotoman]

How about a update on the actual salt condition? Good, Bad, Soft, Thin, Mushy, slippery, wet? Many tire problems? 

[1leg]

Salt as normal these days was very thin. Most of the courses suffered from very rough surface to start off then seemed smoother as you moved down course. Course 2 seemed to have the most incidents with issues happening around the 2 mile mark. This is all a gut feel from just being there and listening to the radio traffic. I was crewing on a roadster without rear suspension. It was his first year so all but the last pass was on 3. The last pass was on 1 and he said it was so rough he didn't want to go over 185ish .

[Dodge Brother]

I'd agree, the courses were BUMPY. I ran to the three mile for all of our runs on both course 1&2 and the pickup was pretty loose on both. I've only been running at Bonneville for 3 years but the last two years haven't been the kind of conditions that a rookie driver wants to see.
There were still a lot of qualifier runs so some of us have it figured out how to run a bumpy course, maybe the heavier cars still can make it happen on the bumps?!

[desotoman]

Thanks for the replies.

Any rumors on BLM or anyone trying to improve racing conditions?

[Stainless1]

Tom as far as I can tell the BLM thinks we should be racing on the Bonneville Dirt Flats

[JAL AKA JL222]

 
  Troy said car was loose in 1st and 2nd better in 3rd but skating, almost pulled Shute but waited, [in car video shows reaching for shute release then changing his mind] shut down at 11/2 miles from start because not pulling as normal in 4th still got to 250mph in 3rd. In car video shows 1st mile marker, then two 1/4-mile markers at shut off.
 
 Did not notice a bumpy track but we run a soft suspension and a lot of weight on tires.

 Checking on hard to move car on suspension this morning Troy and I pushed down on rear bumper,
it moved easily with both pushing and Troy was able to move it by himself.
                 
                JL222

[MRK]

Car looks really good on the Salt!

[JAL AKA JL222]

Salt as normal these days was very thin. Most of the courses suffered from very rough surface to start off then seemed smoother as you moved down course. Course 2 seemed to have the most incidents with issues happening around the 2 mile mark. This is all a gut feel from just being there and listening to the radio traffic. I was crewing on a roadster without rear suspension. It was his first year so all but the last pass was on 3. The last pass was on 1 and he said it was so rough he didn't want to go over 185ish .

  Years ago, I was takin for a ride in a dune buggy with solid suspension at Pismo beach.

 Beat the crap out of me and this was on sand which surprised me

 Also a few years ago watching the racers from our pits, a roadster with solid suspension came by,
 the tires were bouncing off the small bumps at around 25mph.

 I could see air under the tire.

                 JL222

[1leg]

I think any car that came originally with front and rear suspension, should have front and rear suspension.

[tallguy]

I (so far) believe that all land speed race vehicles should have front & rear suspension.

Although I can imagine some possible benefit from lack of suspension (such as lower cost, less weight, and
perhaps better aerodynamics), safety should be of a higher priority.

Perhaps pneumatic tires provide enough "forgiveness" on an exceptionally smooth pavement such as an airport
runway.  But lakebeds appear to be a bit less-predictable.  With higher speeds, sometimes an entire vehicle
gets airborne, which -- ahem -- can affect ability to steer.  Maybe we could discuss this.

[desotoman]

Question for those who were at Speedweek.

Is the real problem there is not enough salt for the drags to be able to fill in the divots in the tracks?
Or are our own vehicles creating the problem with soft salt?

[Stainless1]

Both... the mud does not dry flat.. the thin salt has no choice but follow the mud.  T thin salt doesn't drag well because it dries hard om the surface... the drags can only break it up a little making it loose... a little rain after dragging and a week before racing would help but mother nature is not working for us!
The thin salt does not hold up to the pounding and granulates, grooves and pot holes...
I think we need salt laydown back... 2 inches of surface would give us a race course back.   
  yes I know I am...

[Stan Back]

Stainless --

Looked at your run video. 
Are you shur you didn't tow south?
I've toured smoother routs on the Panamerican Road Race in Mexico.

This new "thing" is hard to get used to.  When you go to answer or just say hello, it doesn't bring up what the last thing is -- or what? -- or when or how.  Of course, my skills on these electric machines is very small and fading fast -- just like me.

Stan 

[kiwi belly tank]

The salt crust doesn't bond to the brine dirt, it just sits on top of it. Now that the crust is depleted down to about 1/2" at best, there is nothing to drag it into other than the low spots in the brine dirt base. Once it's disturbed it just peels up & exposes the dirt. Back when there was thickness to the crust, dragging would blend salt to salt but that's history now.
  Sid.