A driver trying to set a land speed record during a racing event at Utah’s famed Bonneville Salt Flats died Sunday after he lost control of his rocket-like vehicle called the Speed Demon, organizers said. Driver Chris Raschke lost control about two and a half miles into a run and was treated by medical professionals at the scene, but died from his injuries, according to the Southern California Timing Association, which organizes the popular land-speed racing event known as “Speed Week.” For decades, the flat, glasslike white surface has drawn drivers from all over seeking to set new land speed world records and motorcycle and car fans to watch. A remnant of a prehistoric lakebed, the salt flats that are about 100 miles west of Salt Lake City have also been a backdrop for movies like “Independence Day” and “The World’s Fastest Indian.” “Motorsports is inherently a dangerous sport,” said Dennis Sullivan, a car builder and racer who set a land speed record in his 1927 Model T street roadster and serves as president of the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association. “People get hurt. People get killed. That’s just the nature of the sport. It doesn’t happen a lot.”

Sullivan said motor sports also have stringent safety requirements — such as stronger roll bars, special tires and more fire extinguishers — that help protect drivers.

The last racing death Sullivan recalled at the flats came in 2016 when Sam Wheeler, a renowned land speed motorcycle racer, crashed at 200 mph when the high-performance bike he was testing fish-tailed and went airborne.