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The Bonneville Salt Flats has a siren song unlike any other place this pinup has ever been. Its stark conditions and austere beauty offset the grit and ingenuity of the generations of racers who prepare for years in the hopes of breaking a record in mere seconds. With intrepid photographer Mitzi Valenzuela and pinup pal, Sweet as Candie, at Bonneville Speed Week as my tour guides, I witnessed the racers talent, dedication, engineering, blood, sweat, and tears come to fruition on the salt, including Speed Demon’s return, and posed with an incredible rat rod. I also walked the lines, meeting many racing hopefuls, including the young and incredible Kadie, who at only 19 raced her family’s Bonneville Betty for the very first time. As Miss Mooneyes Japan, it was especially meaningful to wish the Mooneyes USA team “godspeed” as they prepared to run the courses and observe the hundreds of Moon discs glistening in the heat on each vehicle. On the salt there are no politics–the only red hats you’ll see belong to the members of the 200 MPH club and SCTA staff–and these honors are EARNED.
Most importantly I came to better understand the community built around this storied event and by the people who love it, who I am now lucky to count as new friends. There are no words to adequately describe the longing I’ve been left with, only “Salt Fever.”
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