Salt Quality

[greg]

Looks like there will be lots of shrapnel left on the high ground that's going to be used by SCTA. It'll have to be inspected like an aircraft carrier deck if it's used  a second time. Hopefully some virgin stuff will be dry enough for  motorbikes by September 2. Hate running over crankshaft/rod/pan debris at Mach Boogy-Boogy speeds.

[JackD]

It is the continuing responsibility for all the users of the salt to be mindful of the others.
The BLM puts a little teeth in it with a required cleanup bond, but not everybosy is as responsible as the large LSR meets.
I guess I have picked up more cigarette butts on the salt than just about anything and few of my friends smoke.
As the use goes up, the potential for problems go up as the useful area goes down.

[landracing]

Greg,

This is not different then any other year ?? The BUB crew when they drag find stuff and pick it up,, You are more then welcome to police and walk the full 12 miles of the international course if you would like to pick up any FOD you find... If you are that worried about it....

Sometimes or most generally somewhere along the line the courses cross, Its a fact of usable space on the salt,  crosses the BNI courses.

Second, The BNI does a really good job of patrolling the courses, and picking up stuff...

dont blame the BNI folks or others, anything can happen, and Ive seen more stuff left out there from Movie and TV crews for private filming then anybody else...

Jack is correct of the cigarette butts, I'm a smoker, and I have a pissed off wife cause when she empties my pockets for laundry she finds them all...

And by the way, BUB is pretty much limited to the International course for a full 12 miles, so I dont know what you are impling by virgin salt... International course has been used for 50+ years....

[landracing]

jack can correct me if I am wrong,,, But I think higher ground might mean also be moving to the north, away from the international course... Jack need you here... Im sure he knows where the high spots are on the salt... Curious to know what the high spot is versus the low spot, being a natural resource and flat not sure what the actual difference is... We all know the low spot at the roads end and north of that..

Jon

[Bret Kepner]

Anything southwest of Floating Island is the "low spot" on the salt. However, the northwest corner of the traditional general course area is between three and five feet higher than the salt within a five-mile circle of Land's End. There is, of course, the notorious "dip" about six miles southwest of the base of Floating Island that has been created more by salt erosion than a change in "mud altitude".

The pass between Floating Island and the northwestern end of the Silver Island range, (almost directly across from Campbell Peak, Graham Peak and Cobb Peak), is the lowest area of all so we know we won't be THAT far north. We all know the quality of the salt up there, anyway.

The northern salt flats, (north of the current course area on the other side of the Silver Island range and at the base of Pilot Peak, running through Box Elder and Tooele Counties near Donner Spring), are between ten and twenty feet higher than the southern salt which is, no doubt, why the SCTA has been scouting that area for a while now.

The new asphalt road has made racing on the northern salt a very real possibility in coming years; we've seen the salt up there in excellent condition for racing but until 2006 it was a three-hour trip in a 4X4 just to traverse the twenty miles to get there!

[Freud]

Greg:

quote :  debris at Mach Boogy-Boogy speeds.

Which streamliner are you  running?
I don't remember of a 'liner with the name of the owner being Greg.
How many crankshafts do you figure will be left out there after
they drag the course?
Have you ever been there?

FREUD

[JackD]

The typical low spot (soft spot) is like a river stream that goes mostly East from the notch in the mountain and it is also where the cross winds are the most prominent.
At the first BUB meet it was about the 3/4 mile point of the timed distance if I remember correctly.
The "High Ground" is normally at a diagonal to the International alignment and takes you NW to the mud that is north of floating Mountain for the down run and SE towards the dike where the drags are kept for the return.
It ain't everything you want, but it is everything you have.

[JackD]

Bret took it a little farther than I did but is very correct.
You may see running in the area he mentions sooner than later.

[landracing]

Bret,

Glad you made your 2nd post ever... All that knowledge and you can only find to post twice.. Shame on you... Hope to see at Motel 6 again this year... When are you getting there??

Jon

[Freud]

He doesn't have enough hair to be allowed to roost at Motel 6.

ferd

[Bret Kepner]

We'll be pulling into the Nevada Crossing on Friday, Jon. I'm sure I'll see you then if not at the Kilo Club during the week. We'll keep a beverage cold for you. I promise to increase my "Worthless Post" quotient in the coming year.

I was thinking about alternative racing areas after burning up some nighttime minutes with Freud tonight. For years, the best salt has been a 26-mile long (N-S) by 7-mile wide (E-W) stretch east of the Silver Island Range, the southern tip of which is about five miles east of Floating Island. Access is only 2.5 miles off the shore at the Reed-Donner Pass but could you imagine 3000 vehicles trying to get there on the "Donner Highway? LMAO!

I took Freud on a little 50-mile jaunt down the Donner Freeway a few years ago to get him to the Silver Island Pass, (commonly referred to as "the notch in the mountain"), for some pictures and it was more like the twelfth stage of the Dakar than a scenic cruise!

It was Newby who schooled the Kilo Club in the lay of the land out there; how he survived in that area is beyond me. He'll be waiting for us at Land's End in a few days!

[JackD]

So it was you guys that were fighting over My Hodaka !
You can have it, just don't fight !
It was FOB at Don's shop anyway.

A competition in the area he describes would have quite an impact on the hotel shortage, but would be closer to the racing needs.

[greg]

Touchy, touchy. Very defensive lot here with a nasty edge. I floated this line of thought hoping to get some meaningful input, which some provided. Thank you very much. In answer to Mr. Freud (a shrink who used way too much cocaine and liked kite feathers), yes. Mach boogy-boogy is any speed you bail at that hurts way too much. Gone head first into textured concrete at 90mph and that felt fairly fast at the time. The thought of doing that at a buck fifty or better (like Barry Sheene at Daytona) does not appeal to me. Besides, if you're in a streamliner you gotta cage. Open casket as compared to closed.

[JackD]

It is a sensitive subject that is in the hands if some equally sensitive, knowledgeable, and caring people that spend more effort on it that it would seem that you know.

"If you are going to light a match to shed some light, you must be prepared for a possible explosion." (me)

[greg]

Ahh. Classic case of male menopause. It is good to know they are so many people who care so much and I will be happy to aid preping the course when needed