Don Conley sets B/BSTR class record run 223.879 - Chet Thomas Racing

The heritage of hot rodding runs deep in Southern California; it seems like every hotrod event in California is in the Southern part of the state. It's also the home of the El Mirage Land Speed Races. The El Mirage land speed race event is a special place for hot rodders, where they have been racing for over 50 yrs. The land speed races are highly organized by a group of volunteer clubs called SCTA Southern California Timing Association.

The El Mirage dry lake bed is massive, flat, and mostly smooth. There are no signs saying turn here or go that way; start heading North-East towards the mountain in the far distance. Sometimes there won't even be other cars nearby. Other times there may only be one other or an ATV or motorcycle in the distance, and other times there will be many.

As you pull onto the dry lake bed, your whole mindset seems to change. You're not thinking about work or that thing you need to do when you get home. As you start your journey across the dry lake bed, sometimes it may feel like the tires are not even touching the ground; that's from soft dirt that gets blown across the lake bed. The drive is somewhat surreal.

The El Mirage track is a 1.3 mile straightaway. There will be one vehicle on the track going as fast as their car, bike, or whatever vehicle you have will go, with dust blowing in and around their vehicle. Sometimes they can barely see anything around them. Still, they keep it going all out until they see the giant red balloons. The course quickly gets more difficult as the racers loosen up the dirt before them. Even if you are an experienced racer before you know it, you might be spinning around at 150 plus mph as you try to regain control, seen this many times.

The course is short compared to the Bonneville salt flats, where you have miles to get up to your top speed. The course at El Mirage is 1.3 miles, and being a dirt track and the class minimums, it's challenging to achieve a record run at El Mirage, but it can be done. One of the nice things about racing at El Mirage it's possible to get a record run with one pass. If you surpass the record holder at Bonneville, you will need to back it up with another run.

The racers that go to El Mirage land speed races are there for personal reasons. They are not there for the money. There is no big cash payout for breaking a record. Your name gets recorded in a book, that record may be short-lived, or it might be unbreakable for many years. It's not for the money; it's an achievement; it's a goal.

The two-day season opener had a fantastic turnout. Some racers came out to race for the first time. Many veteran racers were returning and trying to get that elusive record run. Many had their goals achieved; there were a lot of records broken at this event. Out of the 87 entries, there was 30 record runs at this El Mirage season opener.

One of the runs that we eagerly wanted to see was David Freiburg's quest to get into the 200mph club at El Mirage; they weren't filming the next Roadkill episode. David's personal goal was to join the very elite group of racers at El Mirage. As the event was winding down due to the worsening conditions, David not only was able to achieve his goal of getting into the El Mirage 200mph club he also blew past the previous 34-year-old record of 200.681 in the B/ BGC race class on his third run with an astounding 208.791. It was a great day for many including myself, I was also able to achieve my goal; to photograph Dave’s record run. It was a great day.

If you are at all into hotrods and pushing them to the limit, this is what you want to accomplish. For most, it doesn't matter if it's the fastest vehicle of the day; you want to get your name in that record book, the fastest run in your race class, and prove to yourself that you can do it. For us, the fans of the sport, we want to see you do it. This is where we all want to be.