Bonneville Speed Week photos and narrative by Doug Mades

I hope you enjoy this site for photographic glimpses of the Southern California Timing Association Speed Week performances on the Bonneville Salt Flats.  This is a photo team member specific link of RunsOnSalt.com.


I won’t and am not intending to impress anyone with my background, after all I’m safely behind a camera and not a steering wheel.  I have enjoyed things automotive most all my life and find the excitement of the performances, ingenuity of machinery and sheer beauty of many of the vehicles  an exhilarating experience.  I’m an admirer.


I grew up around my dad’s automotive machine shop where he always had a project, building, rebuilding or refurbishing.  

I learned to drive about the same time I advanced to a 24” bicycle about the same time 20” banana seat bikes came out.  I didn’t drive far, just back and forth on a back alley but in a small sports car my dad designed and built.  Something with an engine made all the difference and my imagination went wild.


I spent several years as a juvenile racing go-karts in the early to mid 1960’s when my dad spent most of his waking life modifying first Power Products then McCullough engines which outperformed most all competitors.  I loved drag racing as a spectator and also helped build a 57 Chevy for that purpose in the late 1960’s racing at Mid American Raceways.


Later I enjoyed an automotive engineering career in greater Detroit where I retired then moved to Colorado.  And fortunately I’m now within an easy days drive to the flats.


Hope you enjoy these and related site photos where I and other team members with Ralph Komives have tried to capture the excitement and enthusiasm that is without doubt one of life’s wonderful experiences.

Doug Mades Gallery 2016

Doug Mades Gallery 2017