El Mirage Dry Lake Bed

El Mirage Dry Lake Bed
click photo to enlarge	El Mirage is a dry lake bed in the Mojave desert. It has become very popular for off high way vehicles and is managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). El Mirage has also been popular for filming commercials and moves such as parts of Lethal Weapon and Terminator2. It has also been used for filming music videos such as Shania Twain's "That Don't Impress Me Much" and Josh Groban shot photos and music video frames for his album, "Awake", including "February Song" and "You Are Loved". But on this day we were here for the Southern California Timing Associations timed speed runs. The club also runs the Bonneville Salt Flats speed runs. I learned about this from a visitor to Mt. Baldy while we were volunteering there, thanks Dan. One of the perks of volunteering is we meet all kinds of people.
click photo to enlarge	The day before we were planning on going to the timed speed runs we were volunteering at the Route 66 Museum and a couple who lived in El Mirage came in and were telling us about the races. Racing in Southern California is linked to the dry lake beds found in the deserts where hot rodders gathered in the 1930's. It was on these dry lake beds where speeds first stopped 100 Mph.
click photo to enlarge	The Southern California Timing Association has been running speed trials here for over 60 years. I don't know much about the rules but from what we saw it looks like you can race just about anything imaginable. The day we were there was slow at first because there was no wind to carry the dust away so after a vehicle would run they would have to wait about 10 to 15 minutes for dust to settle. Then about 10 AM the wind picked up a little, but it was blowing back towards the start. A very unusual direction giving vehicles a headwind which isn't good. Not to mention after a vehicle started running you would have to turn because the dust came back in your face. But we'll go again another day.
click photo to enlarge	click photo to enlarge