A driver died Sunday after crashing whereas attempting to set a land pace file at an annual occasion on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, occasion organizers mentioned.
Chris Raschke, 60, died after the crash at round 3:03 p.m. MT, officers with the Southern California Timing Affiliation, which runs the occasion, mentioned in a press release.
The crash occurred after organizers mentioned Raschke “misplaced management of his land pace car at roughly the two 1/2 mile.” It occurred throughout the annual “Pace Week,” which opened Sunday.
The Bonneville Salt Flats are about 12 miles lengthy and 5 miles extensive and are made up of sodium chloride, or desk salt, based on the federal Bureau of Land Administration, which oversees it.
The world is used for land pace racing, amongst different functions, it says. Drivers on the Bonneville occasion can attain speeds of greater than 300 mph.
Raschke was a driver with the Pace Demon crew in Ventura County, California, and piloted the Pace Demon streamliner, the crew says on its web site. He started working in motorsports within the Eighties, it mentioned.
“We’re deeply devastated,” the crew mentioned on social media Sunday.
The American Scorching Rod Basis was amongst these additionally mourning Raschke’s demise. It mentioned he was reportedly touring within the neighborhood of 300 mph when the crash occurred.
“To those that knew him on the salt, he was somebody who discovered the right stability of pleasant and aggressive. By no means a common mixture and one which speaks to the standard of his character,” the affiliation mentioned in a press release. “We ship our deepest sympathies to Chris’s household and pals.”
The flats are situated round 120 miles west of Salt Lake Metropolis, on the western fringe of the Nice Salt Lake Basin, the BLM says on its web site. They’re remnants of Lake Bonneville.
The reason for the crash is underneath investigation, the Southern California Timing Affiliation mentioned.
