As Jack says, there was no access road before the freeway was put in.
(Actually, the access road has altered the salt conditions.) You entered the
salt by driving off the highway through the ditch and onto the salt at seven
or 12 miles east of Wendover, between a couple of 55 gallon drums. We used
the 12 mile entrance a few years when the salt was under water.
As I remember, there was only a single black line down the middle of the
course. What amazed me about the black line was the pictures of the English
cars straddling the line on their runs. I always avoided the line because it
was slick!
In those days communication was by telephone which required a line put down
from the starting line to the nine mile and another from the starting line
to the timing tower and wire laid down for the speakers at the starting line
and the pits. Lots of wire to pick up at the end of the meet and check out
before the next meet.
I always worked the nine mile on record runs and it was interesting to hear
the phone communications and also hear the sounds in real time. Through the
phone you would hear that the car had shut down at the five, but in real
time it was still sounding loud and clear for several seconds longer.
Another thing that got my attention was the sound of the car coming toward
the nine mile while shut down. It was so quite at the nine that the sound of
the tires rolling on the salt could be heard for quite a distance.
I may have said this before, but I was the one that received Bert Munro on
his first down run for record. When he rolled in, fuel had soaked his right
leg and his face was full of salt. He said, "I say its a might salty out
there". I tried to get him to take it easy for a couple of miles on the
return run so he would get his speed in the correct mile, but he laid on it
from the nine and blew the engine, failing in the record attempt.
Tom, Redding CA - #216 D/FCC (I kind of miss those days)
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