One of the world’s fastest females on two wheels makes rookie debut for 61st Anniversary of racing on Southern California’s famed dry lake
Valerie Thompson, 5-time land speed record holder and owner/driver of Valerie Thompson Racing will make her first appearance at the Southern California Timing Association’s (SCTA) El Mirage Speed Trials May 18-19, near Antelope Valley, California.
The SCTA sanctions the world’s fastest speed trials and will be celebrating the 61st anniversary of land speed racing activities at the famed dry lake. El Mirage was a popular destination for hot rodders in the early 1950’s when few sanctioned racetracks were available in the US and is well known as the birthplace of both the SCTA and National Hot Rod Association (NHRA), drag racing’s largest series.
“This will be my first visit to El Mirage and racing on a dry lake bed surface. As an ‘El Mirage rookie,’ the rules are clear that I can only run for ‘time only,’ so I won’t be allowed to race for new speed records until I fulfill all the SCTA competition requirements,” said Thompson. “I’m confident our BMW S 1000 RR will run well due to dramatic performance enhancements we’ve made with BMW Motorrad HP Race Parts and MS Production carbon fiber race bodywork. Since this is a test session of sorts, we look forward to evaluating the performance of our new Avon Tyres on this type of racing surface,” added Thompson.
Thompson earned membership to the ‘Texas Mile 200 MPH Club’ in March with a 1000 cc event record and personal best top speed of 212 mph. She also turned in a strong preliminary performance at the East Coast Timing Association’s Hot Rod Magazine Top Speed Challenge in April before the event was postponed due to weather. Her future plans include racing at both of the SCTA’s land speed trials to be held at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah later this year.
For event details and records, visit http://www.scta-bni.org/.
