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BUB Speed Trials

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Racing seems set to return finally to the Bonneville Salt Flats this year, as the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) has found the conditions favorable to run its Speed Week event next month (above is a photo taken of the salt flats, just two weeks ago).

This is good news for land-speed racers, as racing at Bonneville has seen a two-year hiatus because of deteriorating salt conditions in 2014 and 2015.

Now, the SCTA says that it sees the Bonneville Salt Flats as being suitable for three courses – an 8-mile “long course”, 5-mile “short course”, and a 3-mile “rookie course” – and has begun prepping the salt for its Speed Week event next month.

After being a tentative “go” for racing last week, the 2015 Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials has now been canceled because of conditions on the Bonneville Salt Flats.

The announcement comes after rains in the Salt Lake City, Utah area put water on the salt flat racing course, and now currently half an inch of water sits on what the BMST calls its “Mountain Course” area.

UPDATE: The 2015 Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials has now been canceled, due to salt conditions.

The conditions at the Bonneville Salt Flats are worrying, to say the very least. Each year the conditions of the salt flats are worse and worse, and 2015 marks the second year in a row that Speed Week has been cancelled by the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) because of the conditions.

Last month, when Speed Week was cancelled, there was a lot of doubt cast on the rest of the land-speed record season, but the AMA says that its Speed Trials event has found a suitable course its motorcycle-only land-speed racers.

Set to run August 29th thru September 3rd, as of right now the “AMA Land Speed Grand Championship” that is the Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials is a tentative “go” for racing.

Asphalt & Rubber has gotten some more photos from the 2010 BUB Motorcycle Speed Trials held at Bonneville last week. Taken by A&R reader Constantine Blias (color photos) and MotoCzysz friend Thomas Knudson (black & white photos), we get a glimpse of what the MotoCzysz E1pc looks like slammed to the salt and without its front brakes.

For Czysz, racing is becoming a family affair with his father Terry working the pits, and sons Max and Enzo helping push the E1pc to the starting line (MotoCzysz GM Ryan Taylor also pictured). Czysz concluded his email to us with this line, “…and yes — I rode and hope to keep riding until MotoCzysz is the Worlds fastest motorcycle.” Also photographed was Swiss motorcycling legend Fritz Egli with his 500hp Hayabusa-based sidecar.

At the 2010 BUB Motorcycle Speed Trials week Lightning Motors took the FIM and AMA land speed record for special construction partial streamlining electric motorcycles (300-APS-W) with an official two-way average speed of 173.388 mph. Blasting down the course at 170.732 mph with a 10 mph headwind, Lightning Motors’ return run was clocked at 176.044 with no wind.

This was a marked improvement over the team’s unofficial 166mph pass last year, but still short of the company’s goal of hitting 200 mph on the salt flats. Coming straight from the track at VIR, the only modifications to the Lightning electric motorcycle was a larger sprocket, as you can see above, it’s still in its track fairings (note: other sites have been running photos of the the Lightning bike in an open streamliner fairing, which was used last year, not this year).

UPDATE 2: Richard Hatfield, owner of Lightning Motors, sent this in a text message from Bonneville: “We ran 176.044 as our best speed. The average down and return FIM and AMA speed record was 173.388 mph.”

UPDATE: Just got this in an email from Michael Czysz: “we ran 163 — however they just did 174/175.”

On the salt flats of Bonneville, two electric motorcycle teams are battling for the bragging right to be called “Fastest Production Electric Motorcycle in the World”. TTXGP North America winner Lightning Motors and FIM e-Power and TT Zero Winner MotoCzysz are at the BUB Speed Trials, and from the reports we’ve gotten, the two teams have been trading land speed records all weekend. The latest news we have is that Lightning Motors has clocked the latest LSR with 173mph on the salt flats, breaking the 150 mph record set by Mission Motors at BUB last year, but there’s still time today for that record to again drop.