Hardly anybody had heard about Utah's Salt Flats until a daredevil racer named Teddy Tetzlaff drove an automobile an unbelievable 141 miles an hour.

It was 1914, and though Tetzlaff made the news, his record run was overshadowed by rumblings of war across the Atlantic. Twenty years later, the Salt Flats became the scene for 24-hour endurance races and speed records.

At first, the 24-hour events were dominated by David Abbott "Ab" Jenkins, a man from Spanish Fork who gave up his homebuilding business to pursue his racing hobby full time. Jenkins had turned to 24-hour racing after growing bored with county fair races and hill-climbing contests.

In 1934 Jenkins stripped the fenders off his 12 cylinder Pierce Arrow, determined to break the 24-hour record set seven years earlier in Montlhery, France. With no one to spell him, Jenkins drove the Pierce Arrow around and around the circular track for 24 hours and shattered the old record.

Jenkins' achievement caught the attention of three British speed kings — Sir Malcolm Campbell, John Cobb and Capt. George E.T. Eyston. Campbell and Cobb turned to auto racing after fighting in World War I, Campbell in the Royal Flying Corps, precursor to the Royal Air Force, and Eyston in the Army. But it wasn't until Ab Jenkins set his record in 1934 that the speed kings set their sights on the Salt Flats. In 1935 they headed to Utah.

The 24-hour records had been set at the Montlhery track, but it was not a particularly fast surface, at least compared to the Salt Flats. During a nine-year period at Montlhery, the record was broken just three times.

But when the Brits joined Ab Jenkins in Utah, the record was broken three times in nine days.

First Cobb, with the aid of two relief drivers, broke Jenkins' record. Then Jenkins, using one relief driver, got the record back. Cobb came right back to average 135 miles per hour over 24 hours, yet another record.

The endurance record was one thing; the land-speed record was another, and this was the obsession of Sir Malcolm Campbell, the most famous of the speed kings.

The magic number was 300 miles per hour, and Campbell had been pursuing that number for eight years. Sir Malcolm began his quest for 300 mph on the Pendine Sands of western Wales, and then took his car to Daytona Beach in Florida. It was on the sands of Daytona Beach that Ab Jenkins persuaded Sir Malcolm that Utah was the best place to go for 300 mph. The Utah Salt Flats offered a faster and smoother surface than the beaches of Florida.

On a late August evening in 1935, Campbell flew into Salt Lake City with Eyston, who planned to join Jenkins and Cobb in the 24-hourlong distance races, while Campbell went after the 300 mph mark.