Craig Breedlove, who set multiple land-speed records at Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats in the 1960s passed away this week at the age of 86.
In 1965, Craig Breedlove set a new land-speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats—600.601 miles an hour—in his car, the Spirit of America, which cost $250,000 and was powered by a surplus engine from a Navy jet.Craig Breedlove, the first person to set land-speed records at 400, 500 and 600 mph, died Tuesday at his home in Rio Vista, California. He was 86.
Breedlove seemed destined for the part. He was born in Los Angeles to a Hollywood studio executive and a showgirl, and he was often pictured with a crew cut and an earnest smile. He was both the impresario of a new show and its star performer. “The Spirit of America inched forward, its jet engine shrieking,” Sports Illustrated reported that month. “Soon it was a speck, seemingly headed straight through the orange sun to the southeast. Then it disappeared.”
Breedlove was not the only one with that idea. The next year, Bonneville became the scene of a showdown between Breedlove and brothers Walt and Art Arfons, all of them driving jet cars. The trio traded the record among themselves, with Breedlove the first to crack an average of 500 mph. On his return run, Spirit of America jumped an embankment and ran into a brine lake, with Breedlove barely escaping the vehicle.
In his teenage years, Breedlove married Margaret Kastler, and the couple quickly had three children. He graduated from Venice High School and found work as a welder and firefighter.
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