A 60-year-old man died on Sunday when his vehicle crashed during a land-speed racing event at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, according to the Southern California Timing Association, which organized the annual event.
Chris Raschke, 60, a longtime speed racer, was trying to break a record when he lost control of his vehicle about two and a half miles into a run, the S.C.T.A. said in a statement. Mr. Raschke was treated at the scene, the association said, but died from his injuries.
The cause of the crash is being investigated, according to the S.C.T.A. The event, known as Speed Week, began on Saturday and is set to run through Friday.
Mr. Raschke was driving a special vehicle known as the Speed Demon, the third iteration of a machine designed to break speed records, according to the Speed Demon Racing Team’s website. At the same event in 2024, Mr. Raschke had recorded a speed of 446 miles per hour in a previous version of the vehicle. The team set a speed record for piston-engine vehicles in 2020 with the Speed Demon, at 470 m.p.h.
Mr. Raschke had been immersed in the world of motorsports since he was a teenager and was the first official employee at Ventura Raceway in California, according to the Speed Demon website. “Chris started on the ground floor and learned every aspect of what it takes to keep a racetrack operating,” the website said. “The racing bug had bitten him.”
The salt flats — a 30,000 acre expanse of hard, white salt crust on the western edge of the Great Salt Lake Basin in Utah — have been the site of speed races since 1912. Once part of a large prehistoric lake that covered a third of the state, the flats are 12 miles long and 5 miles wide and are comprised mostly of table salt, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management.
Claire Moses is a Times reporter in London, focused on coverage of breaking and trending news.
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