I went to Bonneville Salt Flats with Paul and the whole Knights Of The Round Track team. A surreal place. Once you move away from the staging area there you are surrounded by white in every direction and distant mountains floating above a perpetual mirage.
Me and Paul drag-raced. Their car pulled ahead off the line but I could keep up. When we hit 90 MPH Paul veered off to head back, but I pushed ahead to see where V-RAM maxed out. It took some time to make 100. At about 102, things got strange. The car felt floaty. The horizon started to misbehave. I had the wheel pointed straight ahead, but the distant peak I was aiming for was sneaking of to the right so casually that I almost didn't notice. I had entered a wet region and was hydroplaning. No braking. No steering. Car spinning. 102 MPH last time I checked. Larry shitting. I didn't try to correct and just hoped I didn't hit a dry patch and flip. Salt sprayed my face whenever the car was sideways. The trunk opened and slammed shut as rotation passed backwards. The car finally stopped and I took a moment to get my bearings. The landmark peak was behind me now. I drove and the staging area slowly emerged ahead of me.
I had made a few calls to find out what the conditions were and got 'they may dry out by Saturday'. They seemed dry enough, but I must have sprayed 70 pounds of salt off the car tonight. Next year we'll give Bonneville Speedway a few more weeks to dry.
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