First exposure to Bonneville

[manta22]

My first exposure to Bonneville was reading Hot Rod Magazine in our school library. Later from this TV series opening shot. Anyone else? https://youtu.be/A8xT2tW6-Rk

[MAYOMAN]

I agree, Hot Rod magazine and Wally Parks brought the Bonneville Salt Flats to us midwest car nuts in the 1950s. I still remember being totally impressed by seeing photos of the Shadoff Special and T-buckets racing on the pristine salt flats. Belly rankers were also amazing to see. Wally Parks also promoted drag racing and the NHRA, touring the country with the NHRA Safety Safari, and helping drag strips get organized. While Bonneville would be a distant aspiration, the local 1/4-mile tracks got us off the streets and encouraged the hot rod activities in a safe manner. Seeing that title shot of the salt flats every week just reinforced the dream to set land speed records. I think Eric Rickman was responsible for much of my speed lust with his terrific photos.

[aircap]

I was reading about Arfons and Breedlove going at it hammer and tongs in the newspapers when I was in grade school. So my first racing exposure was salt racing. Shortly after, Dad built a couple go-karts, and I became hooked on motorsports for life. Didn't matter if it was dirt, drags, or demo derbies - I liked cars, especially fast ones.

[Stainless1]

For me it was reading Hot Rod stories about Bonneville, the 200MPH Club and seeing the news film clips at the Star and Fox Theaters about the battles between Craig Breedlove and Art Arfons just before the Saturday morning movies.
I was fortunate to meet up with Ben Jordan, a LandSpeed racer in Denver, while I was in the Air Force, then get to work on a real LandSpeed car, and finally get to go to Bonneville and be part of a team that set a record.  Years later I was able to meet and talk to both of my LSR heroes at the salt... WOW...  Oh, and then getting into that elite club of really fast folks in the lakester with a little motor...
Talk about living the dream... did I mention I'm still doing that 

[MAYOMAN]

Back in the 1950s, Daytona Speed Week featured several events - on the Daytona Beach. In addition to stock car races there were land speed records over the mile, certified by NASCAR. Bill Norkett was my neighbor in Chicago and raced his 1955 Thunderbird in 1957. At the time, the beach was our Bonneville. He kept that wreck in the garage behind his home for decades. Watch this great film.

https://www.google.com/search?q=bill+norkett+daytona+beach&rlz=1C1RXQR_enUS1026US1026&oq=&aqs=chrome.2.35i39i362l7j46i39i175i199i362.262540626j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:73e2daca,vid:CGObNSK82A4

[Scott]

My exposure to Bonneville was watching the cars on open trailers passing through my hometown on their way to Wendover.   SB

[salt27]

Back in the 1950s, Daytona Speed Week featured several events - on the Daytona Beach. In addition to stock car races there were land speed records over the mile, certified by NASCAR. Bill Norkett was my neighbor in Chicago and raced his 1955 Thunderbird in 1957. At the time, the beach was our Bonneville. He kept that wreck in the garage behind his home for decades. Watch this great film.

https://www.google.com/search?q=bill+norkett+daytona+beach&rlz=1C1RXQR_enUS1026US1026&oq=&aqs=chrome.2.35i39i362l7j46i39i175i199i362.262540626j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:73e2daca,vid:CGObNSK82A4

A miracle that Bill was able to survive that wreck.

[manta22]

Back in the 1950s, Daytona Speed Week featured several events - on the Daytona Beach. In addition to stock car races there were land speed records over the mile, certified by NASCAR. Bill Norkett was my neighbor in Chicago and raced his 1955 Thunderbird in 1957. At the time, the beach was our Bonneville. He kept that wreck in the garage behind his home for decades. Watch this great film.

https://www.google.com/search?q=bill+norkett+daytona+beach&rlz=1C1RXQR_enUS1026US1026&oq=&aqs=chrome.2.35i39i362l7j46i39i175i199i362.262540626j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:73e2daca,vid:CGObNSK82A4

Wow! He dodged a bullet in that crash!

[gowing]

Like most here...  I grew up reading about Arfons, Breedlove, Kitty O'Neil, The Budweiser rocket, etc...

Being a poor rural kid, I figured that LSR and those exotic, specialized, expensive machines were the playthings of rich guys,
 corporations, rocket scientists, etc. and therefor unobtainable to me.

Then I went to the "Autorama" and saw the Easyriders streamliner.
A light went off.
Making a motorcycle go fast would obviously be cheaper, simpler, and waaay cooler than a car.
At that point... the fuse was lit.


.

[Gary Freudenberger]

I can't remember a time when I didn't know about Bonneville. First trip to the salt was 1973 with a guy that loved to drive in reverse... and that was one of the more tame antics that I was exposed to as a young impressionable lad. No wonder I turned out like I did.

[Stainless1]

I can't remember a time when I didn't know about Bonneville. First trip to the salt was 1973 with a guy that loved to drive in reverse... and that was one of the more tame antics that I was exposed to as a young impressionable lad. No wonder I turned out like I did.

You were one lucky kid....   

[Speed Limit 1000]

I can't remember a time when I didn't know about Bonneville. First trip to the salt was 1973 with a guy that loved to drive in reverse... and that was one of the more tame antics that I was exposed to as a young impressionable lad. No wonder I turned out like I did.

Gary your father was a friend and hero to racers around the world. Being with him and learning about the wild side of life was a special treat. Freud was an amazing man and is missed.

[JR'S PAPA]

I caught the fever in the summer of 1960 when I watched Mickey go 406. WOW!! My dad packed my little brother, my mom, my best friend, me, a load of sandwiches and two burlap radiator bags of water into our '52 Chevy and we parked on East side of the course after pulling off U.S. 40 right behind Mickey's Challenger on an open trailer, driven by Mickey's wife. There was no gate or fees, it was free. I related the story to her in 2014, I think after Danny fried a clutch. She was surprised I remembered her and that Pontiac station wagon rolling thru the barrow pit and onto the Salt Flats.  I told Danny that he and I met on that day in 1960.
Now my son and grandson carry my passion for the sunrises and the smell of nitro and the exhaust music cracking the pits to life.
I do love that hallowed place.
jr

[fissionspeed]

I always sort of "knew" about bonneville but didn't really think about it until I saw the Roadkill episode with Frieburger driving the keith turk camaro. Since then it's been a holy mission.

[TD]

In 1968 the mothers of my childhood friends threw me a 9th birthday party.  My mother was seriously ill in hospital and my father had previously passed in 1962.  It was a very kind gesture on their part.

I was given a copy of Hot Rod Magazine Yearbook 1965, featuring a multi-page article on the Summers Brothers and Goldenrod.   I have no idea who gave it to me or where they might have got it.   The book is on a shelf about four feet from where I sit as I write this.

Holy crap.  If I hadn't been interested in fast cars before I was now.   Been following unlimited LSR, at least, since.

Finally made it out to Bonneville in March of last year, on a side trip from Salt Lake City.  Also stopped at Wendover Army Airfield in pursuit of another interest, that being nuclear weapons...  Hope to make it back for Speedweek some day.