“Such an animal of a car,” she thought, feeling the wind whipping over the open cockpit. When the starter’s hand dropped, Youngblood floored the accelerator until the car’s turbo-charged engine was revving at 170 miles per hour. After two seasons plagued by cancellations, she was just thrilled to race again. On the start line, Youngblood had other things to think about. The sturdy salt crust that racers rely on is deteriorating, and though the precise cause remains unknown, the changes have revealed the surprising fragility of the landscape - and raised questions over whether or not it can be saved. For the last couple of years, however, most of the races have been canceled due to poor conditions. Land speed racers from around the world have long flocked to the Salt Flats near the Utah-Nevada border, whose 30,000 acres offer a perfect testing ground for their specialized cars and motorcycles. Youngblood, 44, is one of the world’s top female land speed racers, a tribe of amateur racecar drivers made famous by the 2005 film, The World’s Fastest Indian. It was day four of Speed Week, a series of speed trials held on the glittering white plain every August, and Youngblood wanted to set a new record. Ali Youngblood sat in the driver’s seat of her blue Ford roadster, inching toward a start line drawn across the Bonneville Salt Flats.
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