Racers -
On Tuesday I hosted Kathleen Clarke, Director of Public Lands Policy who works for Gov Herbert. She and her aide spent 9 hours on the salt with me. During the time they were shown the entire layout and operation of land speed racing, introduced to key SCTA personnel, witnessed action from the starting line, high-speed shut-down area, timing tower, inspection lines, impound and a great deal of time talking with racers in their pits. Lee Kennedy took us on a tour of the active courses and explained the safety procedures.
When she left Larry Volk took us out to a spot far beyond the rookie course where GREAT salt was in place, looking like it did in the 1960s; he proceeded to wail on it with a pick ax demonstrating how hard the salt SHOULD be to safely accommodate speed machines. Overall the day made an indelible, positive impression and she was mighty impressed with the professional, well planned and execution of the event. She promised to give the Governor, Dept of Natural Resources, Parks and Recreation, etc. a full report on the day.
I asked that since she was the former BLM director in DC, would she please give it a "deep think" about what the LSR community ought to be doing to get the restoration plan put into place.
On Thursday, 4 members of our US Congressional staff were on site. They stayed 4 hours and were given the same hospitality as Clarke but with a big group of STS and Utah Alliance folks doing the tour. All left saying their impression of the situation had changed dramatically and that the tour was of immense observational help. More on this when the bill is introduced in the HOR. However, before the day was done, the buzz had reached the ears of another congressman who CALLED US to say we can count on his full support for the new legislation.
Understand this was NOT a staffer, but the elected official himself.
We are making enormous progress.
NOTE: It was Jenna Whitlock, Acting BLM State Director who said, "Why are you going out there? They are racing, everything is fine." Whitlock was responding to a personal invite Clarke made to join us for the in-depth salt tour. Other the BLM law enforcement, no other staffers stayed on-site as far as I know. Dr. Brenda Bowen and her post-doctoral student helping with the study attended and both were utterly entertained by the unfolding speed deeds as evidence by their instantaneous, beaming smiles when I asked them what they thought. . . .
Also, it was Emma Penrod at the SLC Tribune that called me asking for a reply to Kevin Oliver's comment to her that "everything was great, we and the racers are friends, the salt is back" or something like that. I replied that Oliver was delusional and the best characterization I could provide was that the salt was like patient that had awoken in the ICU after two comatose years and that plenty of rehab and healing was still on the chart before the patient was cleared for heavy-lifting duty -- aka supporting hundreds of high speed machines safely. For that I got labeled, "outspoken critic of the BLM" in the article. I think it would make a great bumper sticker, or T-shirt.
