Lynn, this is an outdoor sport... sometimes Mom Nature does not cooperate.... just the way it works... Most purpose built Bonneville land speed cars are not good Mile cars... for us it is that finality of where the track stops and gearing to run such a short distance.
Small normally aspirated lakesters need space to accelerate the weight at which they must be built to maintain safety. You don't show where you are from, but I travel 1200 miles to Bonneville several times a year. Yes, to answer your question, we have run on pavement with our land speed bikes, but never considered it with the small motor lakester....
I see LandSpeed Racing as Bonneville... Half mile, and mile racing is an opportunity for folks to use and test their machines... that is a good thing... but class records seem to come and go with the location of the track...
Lack of participation at an event with predicted poor weather is nothing new... I would not drive the 500 miles to Blytheville, Denver or Texas if the weather was in question.... But I have driven... or started to drive 1200 to race Bonneville.... before cell phones and the internet you would find out when you got there... since then I have received calls 200-500 miles from home to be told the races were cancelled.
If you want to build a lakester to race Bonneville it is a commitment.... I am in the middle of one right now.... if you think it is too long of a drive you may not have the same feelings as say the guy building a G in England, or the guys from Japan or NZ that come to race Bonneville. If Bonneville goes away due to strip mining, I will be going to Australia to race...
Build to race where you want to... and go race...