Great Salt Lake Desert The 1846 Donner Party's difficulties in making the crossing contributed to their becoming snowbound in the Sierra Nevada. Howard Stansbury explored the desert in 1849. In 1956, I-80 replaced the Wendover Cut-off across the desert, including a straight east-west section for ~ between the Cedar Mountains to the east and Wendover on the Utah/Nevada border. Following a railway completed across the desert's Bonneville Salt Flats in 1910, the flats were first used as a speedway in 1914. The world records for highest land speeds are regularly broken here. The Great Salt Lake Desert experiences a desert climate with hot summers
Pioneer 1 (land speed racer) making it eligible for "FIA" Class 1 ( and under). It was claimed to have set a Class 1 record of for the measured kilometer at the Baskunchak dry salt lake, and was the first Soviet land speed racer to exceed . In 1962, the power of the engines was increased to , while weight rose to . The improved car raised the Class 1 and Soviet national records for the measured kilometer to . In 1963, Tikhomirov modified "Pioneer 1" even further, to create "Pioneer 2M". Pioneer 1 (land speed racer) Pioneer 1 is a Soviet "FIA" Group VII