3rd Annual Bonneville VintageGP
Racing, riding - and more racing!
September/October 2008
By Motorcycle Classics Staff
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Lovely Husqvarna at the Salt Flats during the 2007 Bonneville VintageGP.
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Heading into its third year, the Bonneville VintageGP is fast becoming one of the vintage racing season’s premier events. Considering the competition — like July’s Vintage Motorcycle Days and October’s Barber Vintage Festival — the bar is pretty damn high. But BonnevilleGP organizer Tom Kullen doesn’t seem intimidated by that. Judging by the ambitious schedule he’s put together for this year’s event, it just motivates him to succeed.
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As one of the moving personalities behind 1999’s Park City, Utah, vintage race, Kullen’s no stranger to the challenges facing event organizers. But the Park City event infected Kullen with a bug to establish a new venue for vintage racing in the Rockies. Six years later, Kullen learned a new track was being planned in Tooele, Utah, just 30 minutes west of Salt Lake City, and he knew he’d found his new home.
The new track, Miller Motorsports Park, opened in summer 2006, and Kullen held the first Bonneville VintageGP that October. Working with the American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association (AHRMA), Kullen got his event on AHRMA’s calendar. Noticing the attention the little CB160 racers in the Northwest were garnering, Kullen drew Oregon and Washington CB160 racers to Utah for a Battle of the CB160s Le Mans Start, a favorite event in Northwest vintage race circles. He also arranged for racers to run the hallowed grounds of the Bonneville Salt Flats during the BUB Motorcycle Speed Trials.
It was a happening. Riders lined up to run the salt, and racers and attendees alike loved the new 2.2-mile circuit at Miller (the track can be configured from a single, 4.5-mile circuit into a pair of 2.2-mile runs), which is designed to give race fans unimpeded views of the action.