The World's Fastest ...
WITH A
PINCH
OF
S
S A LT
omething on the horizon is moving. The heat
haze shimmering above the vast white plain
begins to ripple. Those around us stir with
movement as they anxiously look for the ap-
proaching apparition.
“There!”, someone yells with excitement.
We all scan the horizon and see a dark spot racing
through the silver shimmer, it seems to be hovering above
a thin layer of mercury.
Excitement roars through
the Mad Max-like town-
ship we are a part of. With
the excitement comes a
strange drone, the sound
of a machine getting fast-
er and faster, the sound
seems removed from the
sight of the machine. Of
course, it is, the machine
is at least half a kilometre
from us on the horizon, it’s
speed is increasing to the
point that the soundwaves
are struggling to keep up.
The machine passes out
of sight, yet the drone con-
tinues. Murmured con-
versations ripple through
the strange township, the
‘townspeople’ go about
their business. We look at each other in stunned silence.
What the hell was that all about?
The Mad Max-like township is as strange as the sight of
the passing vehicle. We’re in the middle of one of Aus-
tralia’s largest salt-lakes, a dry lake in the middle of the
Gawler Ranges, within the South Australian outback. This
is Lake Gairdner. This is Speed Week.
Speed Week is an annual event, held around February
– March every year, weather dependant, and brings out
an array of weird machines all vying to be the fastest ma-
chines in Australia. The 2018 edition is special; the FIM
(Fédération
Internatio-
nale de Motocyclisme)
had declared the event an
official attempt at World
Records and with it has
come some of the world’s
fastest motorcycles.
This isn’t lost on us as
we sit amongst the com-
petitors and teams. It’s
a strange world, a world
that sees a dusty, salty
collection of mechanics
and engineers tinkering
with weird, wonderful,
and wacky machines. It
wouldn’t be out of place in
a post-apocalyptic world
where the machine is god
and man it’s servant. This
world is the work area, the
pits, and stretches over a
kilometre in length. Ahead of us is the track, a straight
line through the salt that is 20 kilometres in length, 12
miles.
TRAVERSE 9