October 2020 • By Tony Thacker
Presented by RatTrapRacing.com and BUA Motorsports

It’s definitely different to have a season opener in October but such was 2020 when pretty much every event around the world was, well, different. For example, land speed racing at El Mirage, California, where they have been racing and setting records for about a century.

El Mo, as it is commonly known, is located about 100 miles north east of Los Angeles in the Mojave Desert. Time was, it was way out there, nowadays the townies are creeping ever nearer with housing tracts, strip malls and the inevitable traffic. Nevertheless, the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA), formed in 1937, continues to sanction land speed racing events every month from May through November except August when they decamp to the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah.

Unlike Bonneville, which is a salt lake, El Mo is a dry lake of alkali dust. Most every winter it rains and levels out the bed, more or less, to form a long, flat race track. Every spring a hearty and hard working band of pure volunteers arrives to lay out a 1.3-mile course that runs arrow straight west to east.

The fastest car so far on the lake is the Leggitt-Mirage Blown Fuel Lakester, an open-wheel device driven by Paul Prentice to a speed of 312.100 mph—that’s pretty fast in dirt and in just 1.3 miles.

Because of the pandemic, racing at El Mo did not get started in 2020 until October, nevertheless, a tough band of racers turned up and five records were broken. Fastest speed of the meet was 268 set by Rick Yacoucci in Nebulous Theorem III. Unfortunately, after just a few hours racing the wind picked up and blew the event all over the lake. Indeed, it resembled the 1930s Dust Bowl, as it was impossible to see beyond the hood of your car. Notwithstanding dust in places you’ve only ever seen with a mirror, it was a fantastic event but not for those that did not get to run. There’s always November.

Besides the racers you can see some amazing rides unless it’s too dusty.

To experience land speed racing and watch an amazing array of unusual machinery you just have to pay the Bureau of Land Management $15 for entry to the lake bed (per day) and you get to drive on hallowed ground. To learn more about the SCTA and to get a schedule of race dates visit scta-bni.org or visit their Facebook page at sctabni