Every racing endeavor has sanctioning bodies over them to establish order through the use of rules, design guidelines, licensing requirements and so on. The danger of driving at the speeds accomplished at the Bonneville Salts Flats would have claimed many lives and likely ended the sport of land speed racing had there not been men, women, and organizations involved in overseeing the vast array of racing effort at the Bonneville Salt Flats and other land speed racing venues.
Racing at the speeds encountered on any of the land speed record venues is dangerous no matter if you ar attempting to run the 130 miles per hour record or breaking the sound barrier on land you need to ensure the safety of the driver, race teams, Salt Flats workers and the spectators. The only way to work towards safer land speed records racing is to be under the umbrella of established sanctioning bodies such as those that already oversee the various land speed record events. While some may feel constrained by the sometimes complex licensing, classifications and safety standards, it goes without saying that the safety of all is more important than the personal feelings of one. In other words, democracy rules.
To establish the class your vehicle will be assigned to (assuming that you’ve already chosen the main category you wish to race in) it is best to contact the main sanctioning body (or bodies) or organization charged with the responsibility of overseeing the particular land speed record race track you are interested in racing at. Contacting these various organization allows you the opportunity to secure the most recent copy of their rules and vehicle safety regulations, this will allow you to closely check over everything while you are still at you home base. One thing you don’t want to do is to travel all the way to the Bonneville Salt Flats with your rig, your racing vehicles (or vehicles), crew, family and friends and then get turned away from the course because you don;t fit anywhere in the guidebooks or your car may have omitted a safety feature that cannot be added prior to your land speed record attempt. having the Bonneville Salt Flats safety committee on your side is only one benefit of obtaining the rules and regulations – you will be driving a vehicle that is safe for you and those others on the racer track as well.
One way you can see what class you might want to race your car or truck in is to take a quick look at the Car Classification page here on BonnevilleRacing.com to see about what category or classification you want to race in. Likewise, there is a page here on BonnevilleRacing.com for those racing motorcycles or motorcycle powered streamliners. These particular classifications listings are from the SCTA (Southern California Timing Association, Inc.) and they are the sanctioned organization overseeing the Bonneville Salt Flats. Contact the SCTA today and get a copy of their rule book along with any additional updates to it regarding the most current racing season.
Although this list is not all the folks who have been involved in the sanctioning of land speed record attempts, it does list the most prominent sanctioning bodies charged with the responsability of overseeing the fastest sport on earth.
ECTA — East Coast Timing Association
11241 Barnes Bridge Road
Laurinburg, NC 28352
(910) 266-9868
http://www.ecta-lsr.com/
SCTA — Southern California Timing Association, Inc.
43807 40th St. East
Lancaster, CA 93535
(661) 946-6986 phone
(661) 946-6483 fax
http://www.scta-bni.org/
USFRA — Utah Salt Flats Racing Association
Post Office box 27365
Salt Lake City, Utah 84127-0365
Phone and fax (801) 583-3765
http://www.saltflats.com/
Non U.S. sanctioning organizations:
Races at Lake Gairdner are sanctioned by the Dry Lakes Racing Association in Australia.
http://www.dlra.org.au/
World land speed record runs are officiated by the FIA — Federation International de L’Automobile.
http://www.fia.com/