Significant rain on Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats contributes to cancellation of FIM Land Speed World Records

PICKERINGTON, Ohio (Aug. 22, 2023) — The 2023 AMA Land Speed Grand Championship, along with the FIM Land Speed World Records, which takes place on the Bonneville Salt Flats near Wendover, Utah, has been canceled due to the remnants of Hurricane Hilary and related storm systems delivering significant rain over the past 24 hours.

“We’re disappointed that we’ll be unable to run the AMA Land Speed Grand Championship this year,” said AMA Track Racing Manager Ken Saillant said. “We always enjoy holding this event and it’s unfortunate the weather once again didn’t cooperate with our best efforts to run a successful event.”

Following powerful rainstorms in the area during the past week, and with even more impending rain on the way, the event assessment team — led by Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials promoter Delvene Reber — determined that all track locations and alternatives would not be safe for competition.

“We put it all on the line every year,” Reber said, “and after the 2022 cancellation we were looking forward to an exceptional race surface and return of our amazing participants to twist the throttle and add their name to the record books. It is surprising and heart wrenching to be cancelling due to the impacts from Hurricane Hilary. We know that everyone wants an exceptional experience, and we are looking forward to next year when we can bring world class motorcycle land speed racing back to the Bonneville Salt Flats.”

Reber added that the BMST will be in touch with participants soon with further information. Additional updates will be provided on the event website at https://bonnevillemst.com/.

To learn more about the AMA Land Speed Grand Championship, visit https://americanmotorcyclist.com/land-speed/.