You'll want to catch National Geographic Channel tomorrow night.
Inside: Speed Week
*Saturday in November 4 at 7pm ET/ 8pm PT*
It's one of the flattest places in North America, a giant expanse of
salt so vast you can see the curvature of the earth. Each year thousands
of hot-rodders make the pilgrimage to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah
with one mission in mind, to go as fast as their wheels will allow. The
world's fastest wheel-driven vehicles need a track at least 11
kilometers long and a surface as smooth as glass. But this year, the
salt is behaving badly, leaving Race Director, Mike Cook with a tall
task. For cars traveling at staggering speeds of over 600 kilometers an
hour, a single flaw in the track can cause spin-outs, or even worse,
serious crashes. Will the track be up to speed? By the week's end,
records may be broken, lives may be lost but at Bonneville, the salt
rules all.
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Michael D. Siewert
Department of Chemistry, University of Calgary
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
tel. 403 220 7228
fax. 403 289 9488
http://www.ucalgary.ca/~mdsiewer
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