My intellect knows I am driving on salt, a surface with so much traction that people go faster here than anywhere else on earth, but my gut keeps screaming about snow. The Salt Flats is the dried-out bed of Lake Bonneville, a prehistoric inland sea. Natives and pioneers alike avoided the place until this century. In the 20's and 30's, no one set more world records on the scorching salt, than Ab himself. On many of his endurance runs Ab Jenkins saw mirages.
Many racers simply lose their bearings veering off the track onto a course of their own imagining.
Teresa had some thoughts on that. But despite the shimmering salt, drivers continue to find their way to test their limits. Al Teague drove 409 mph here in 1991. But beyond all the records set here, this place celebrates something that has defined America, garage ingenuity. It's a 53 Studebaker coupe with a 305 Chevrolet in it.