Having spent a lot of time learning about the salt & the mining to help educate other racers get the real story, let me explain the difference between 18 & 19.
It all comes down to the weather patterns & now that there is so little salt crust left on Bonneville it results in extreme differences.
2018 weather was a fairly normal snow pack then spring broke early with very little rain. Spring & summer were unusually dry but also we didn't have any wind. We are right on the jet stream path here & last summer it stayed north of us. Without the wind effect on the surface, it dried smooth on top. The three previous years when the surface was like a golf ball, that was created by the wind that made divots as it dried. Another factor to 18 being so good was the lack of entrants that had obviously had a gut full of bad salt & just never made the trip. Remember, Saturday afternoon was so quiet on the courses it felt like Monday or Tuesday.
This year's weather pattern can only be explained as wet & windy, the exact opposite to last year. We rolled into spring from snow to rain & it just never stopped raining or blowing. I've been here 20 yrs now & this year is the wettest I've ever seen. I expected the salt was going to be garbage & then it rained Wednesday & again Thursday, I didn't even leave home!
SCTA & USFRA do the best they can with what they have to work with but if you take a rust bucket to the paint shop & get a coat of paint thrown over it, you just have a painted rust bucket!
Watch the weather patterns next year to get some idea in advance of what to expect.
Sid.
