Capturing the spirit of Salt Lake Speed Week with ROADBOSS Magazine
Lucky Boy Agency teamed up with ROADBOSS Magazine to document Lake Gairdner's Speed Week — a community of dreamers chasing land speed records on a salt flat.
Some gigs are an easy yes. When ROADBOSS Magazine came to us with a video doc about Salt Lake Speed Week, we were in. The brief was to capture the feel of Lake Gairdner — a place where people push the limits, with two trucks going for class land speed records at the centre of the story. Jake Ashe led the shoot.
Getting there
Flights to Adelaide, then a seven-hour drive to Lake Gairdner. The last two hours are off the sealed road. We rolled in late, exhausted, and asked a local where we could set up camp. His answer: 'We can help — but first, you better sit down and have a beer.' That set the tone. This event is as much about the community as the machinery.
Day one on the salt
Sunrise on the salt is otherworldly. Crews dust down vehicles with leaf blowers before they hit the flat. Think Mad Max with a festival undercurrent. The event president welcomed us and pushed us to look past the cars and into the culture — the land, the people, the passion.
Our hero subject was Rob Waters and his Kenworth, chasing 155mph. Rob gave us full access — the truck, the crew, the stress, the stories. His rig is built to do one thing very fast, and it's been dialled in for years.
Conditions were brutal: 40°C and the reflection off the salt scorched us through sunscreen. Worth it.
The kit
RED Scarlet with a Canon 24-70mm, a Sigma 150-600mm for long lens, and a Laowa 12mm wide. The RED had a few thermal hiccups in the heat, but held up and delivered the footage we wanted.
Day two
More interviews, more runs, more coverage of Rob chasing the mark. We ended the trip at the Tin Shed — the social centre of the community. It was one of those shoots where every frame feels cinematic because the place does half the work for you.
The micro-doc for ROADBOSS is our best piece of work to date. Stay tuned — it's coming.
