Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1546567
VOLUME 63 ISSUE 37 SEPTEMBER 15, 2026 P119 P lease give us a brief overview of the event. The event is the Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials. We're sanctioned by both the FIM and AMA, so competitors can set FIM world records and AMA national records. We're also an AMA Grand Championship event, meaning anyone who sets an AMA national record here receives a number one plate at the end of the year. That's what makes this different from most forms of racing. In a championship, you have a series and the person who scores the most points becomes champion. Here, if you set a record, you've gone faster than anyone before you. You don't have to be the best on a particular weekend—you have to be the best ever. It's a little like climbing to the top of a mountain that keeps getting higher. We're also set up to establish records in the traditional manner. For an FIM record, competitors must make a return run within two hours, on the same calendar day, and in the opposite direction. For AMA, they have to run in the opposite direction as long as it's within 24 hours of the first run. How long have you been involved in land-speed racing? Twenty-two years. I actually got my start at a DLRA event in Australia, racing my dad's roadster. I was born and bred in Australia, and my parents and all my family are still there. My dad is a hot-rod builder and racer, so I went out to a DLRA event and wouldn't shut up about it. That's where I met my husband. They were there with their stream- liner, looking to go really fast. After that event, I emigrated to the United States and started working for Denis Manning, owner of the BUB streamliner. Denis had always wanted to run a motorcycle-only event. At Speed Week, motorcycles aren't always treated as kindly as the cars, and you don't necessarily want to be running behind a big truck and dealing with the conditions that can create. He wanted an event specifically for motorcycles and wanted to bring world and national records back to Bonneville. We brought AMA sanctioning back in 2004. Denis was the owner of the event, then called the BUB Motorcycle Speed Trials, but I became the event manager. He realized I was good at organizing, as I'm a substitute teacher when not running this event. Denis' role was paying for the event and securing sponsors, but at the end of the day he was a racer. Once we got out here, I was in charge of everything, and he would go racing. For all intents and purposes, we co-founded the event, and I've been running it since its inception in 2004. Denis retired, so to speak, and I took ownership in 2014. So this is your event? This is my event. I'm the sole owner and operator, and I'm the first—and, as far as I know, still the only—female promoter in the 100-year history of land-speed racing. Nobody makes a profit in racing, but I've managed to get a small one going. But yes, I've been running it on my own since 2014. How's the health of the sport? Is it growing? It ebbs and flows. Our biggest issue isn't necessarily the health of the sport—it's the condition of the salt. We've seen the salt crust diminish, and there are a lot of efforts underway to save it. There are conversations involving the mining company because there is mining out here, and it's a complicated situation with many different elements. I think the reduction in land- speed racing has been tied directly to deteriorating salt conditions. Years ago, it could rain during an event, the salt would dry overnight, and we'd race again the next day. Today, it doesn't hold FIVE MINUTES WITH DELVENE REBER Delvene Reber has grown the BMST into one of the premier events of its kind anywhere in the world.