El Mirage

 

California USA

 

El Mirage Lake is a dry lake bed in the Mojave Desert of California in the United States. The lake is located about nine miles (14 km) west-northwest of the town of Adelanto and 10 miles (16 km) north of Highway 18 in San Bernardino County.
For 50 years the lakebed has been used by the Southern California Timing Association for timed speed runs. The club also runs the Bonneville Salt Flats speed runs. The dry lake is approximately six miles (10 km) long. El Mirage Lake is part of the El Mirage OHV Recreation Area. It is also known to be an extremely popular filming location for automobile commercials.

SCTA El Mirage records are one way speed records. These are set on a dirt surface at El Mirage Dry Lake in California. The track is 1.3 miles long. Unlike Bonneville, the six-mile-long El Mirage dry-lake bed is composed of compacted clay and silt. During heavy rain seasons, silt is deposited onto the lake-bed, forming a uniformly flat 'hard pan' in the undrained basin.