SPEED KING CRAIG BREEDLOVE DIES
American five-time world land speed record setter Craig Breedlove died peacefully in his sleep at 86 surrounded by family on April 4 in California.
“He was an American treasure,” said his wife, Yadira Breedlove. “Our hearts are heavy today letting him go, but we also acknowledge Craig’s courage and bravery seeking motorsports honours for the US. For decades, his deeds touched many people around the world.”
Breedlove was the first person to surpass speed marks faster than 400-, 500- and 600-miles per hour (respectively 644km/h, 805km/h and 966km/h).
His son Norman credits his father with demonstrating how to shepherd dreams forward. “What I admired most about Dad was his tenaciousness,” he said. “He simply would not accept rejection and repeatedly went back to people and companies until he got a ‘yes’.”
Of equal importance was his father’s exceptionally high quality of workmanship. “He built things as if they were pieces of art,” recalled Breedlove junior. “He taught me to always ‘give it my best’, reminding me that ‘if you are going to build it, build it to last’.”
Craig Breedlove’s hunt for speed began in his teens. He spent four years rebuilding a junk three-window ’34 Ford Coupe. In 1955, at age 18, he collected his first record on the Bonneville Salt Flats at 152.80mph (246km/h) in Class C Coupe and Sedan category.
Breedlove used a jetpowered car called “Spirit of America” to dethrone Britain’s John Cobb and claim the outright world land speed record for the US on August 5 1963, reaching 407mph (655km/h).
This ushered in years of record-setting swaps with brothers Art and Walt Arfons and Tom Green driving their “Green Monster” jet cars.
“Their rivalry made each other,” said Tim Arfons, son of Breedlove’s long-time rival Art Arfons. “Without each other I think they might have ended up as a historical footnote instead of splashing the front pages of newspapers worldwide for years.”
Breedlove’s accomplishments inspired The Beach Boys to include the song
Spirit of America as a tribute to him on their 1963 Little Deuce
Coupe album. All Breedlove’s jet-powered cars carried the same name through his 60-year racing career.
In 1965 he clocked his final top speed record of 600.601mph (966.6km/h), in a four-wheeled rocket car called “Spirit of America Sonic I” at Bonneville.
Breedlove was voted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1993.
The land speed record is 1,228km/h, set in 1997 by Great Britain’s Andy Green in the Black Rock desert in the US.