The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-07-16
AUTO RACING ON
SALTFLATS OUT
FOR DURATION
BY MURRAY NJ. MOLER
UNITED Press Staff Correspondent


Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah U))-
The Bonneville salt flats, where
most of the worlds superseded
land automobile racing records have
been set, will remain idle this sum-
mer-and until after the war is
over.
The slat flats have become part
of the worlds largest bombing
range, centered at Wendover, ON
the Utah-N Nevada stateline Where
the Army has established man.
moth bombing school.
Most of the drivers who in peace
time blazed across the saline speed
ways to record marks are tied up
with war work. There's a shortage
of gasoline and rubber The highly
complicated racing machines can't
be turned out by plants busy max
ing instruments of war.
Now the flats look forlorn. The
telegraph cable that used to carry
urgent press messages telling of the
latest efforts of the speed kings,
droop into the blue-green water
that covers the salt surface.
The road that carried thousands
Of spectators to the edge of the
racing course is also covered with
water, and its former course lost
in the fastnessof the flats
Last Racing in Al
The last racing the Bonneville
salt flats was two years ago, when
veteran Alb Jenkins pushed his
Mormon Meteor around a closed
course track to pick up the few
remaining long-diStance and en-
durance marks he hadn't reached
in previous years.
The triuunvirate of English rae
ing drivers who, with Jenkins MADE
the Bonneville salt flats interna-
tionally famous are all back in
England, engaged in work vital to
the British war effort.
Sir Malcolm Campbell, who be-
came the first man to exceed 300
miles per hour on land when he
pushed his Bluebird across the salt
at 301.12 mph in 1885, is now a
major in the British commands,
| doing secret war work. The motors
that drove the Bluebird, and later
powered special speedboat to
Campbell's over-Water record of
141.74 mph in 1899. were turned
into the plant of a special tank
Campbell designed.
Capt. George E. T. Eyston, who
took up where Campbell left off, is
a regional executive of the British
ministry of production, but still is
actively engaged in supervising the
design of British high-speed rescue
boats. EySton set a record of 357. 5
mph in 1888 after vigorous duel
with John Cobb, also of London.
Cubb, in peacstime a fur broker
holds the present worlds land speed
record of 36885 miles per hour, es-
tablished Aug. %, 1899. Cobb. a
flyer in the last war, is now with
the British air transport auxiliary
Tires Stop Jenkins
When Cobb left Bonneville ir
1889, shortly after making his rec
ord, he old this correspondent his
future plans depend on Herr Hit.
Ter" A week later Hitler had de-
clared war on England-so Cobb!
plans still depend on Hitler.
Jenkins, now mayor of Salt Lake
City, probably would have racet
this year if it hadn't been for the
scarcity of tires. He had some oil
the other mechanical obstacles
licked and vacation from his
mayoralty duties arranged, but
couldn't get the rubber.
II think I could have driven
1000 miles in one day, 200 miles
an hour for the first hour of the
closed course, and 400 miles an
hour over straight measured mile
if I could have got out there" Jen-
kins said. These marks are his
life's ambition.
Jenkins hopes to go after those
marks when the wars over. He
has turned the Mormon Meteor
over to the Mormon church to be
placed in museum in Salt Lake
City, but with the reservation he
can use it whenever he wants to
make runs on the salt flats. For his
measured mile run he was going
to increase the power of the Meteor
to 3,400 horsepower with the ad-
dition of another motor.
The prospects for brilliant rae
ing after the war are high Much
wartime engineering has been
keyed around development of light,
fast. sturdy motors the kind
needed for racing cars