Breedlove, Craig (Norman Craig)
Auto racing
b. March 23, 1938, Los Angeles, CA
At twelve, he was turning a $75 jalopy into a hot rod. At sixteen, he drove a dragster 154 mph at the Bonneville, UT, Salt Flats. At twenty-two, he paid $500 for a surplus jet fighter engine. Three years later, with sponsorship from Shell Oil and Goodyear, he was back at Bonneville with a three-wheeled, jet-powered car called Spirit of America. He didn't come close to the sought-after land speed record.
He was the back the following year, 1963, and Spirit of America now had a giant stabilizing tail designed by Breedlove. On August 5, he averaged 407.45 mph, well above John Cobb's 16-year-old record. But there was doubt about whether it would be accepted by the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Two questions were raised: Was Breedlove's three-wheeled vehicle an automobile or a motorcycle? Was a jet-powered vehicle, with no transmission and essentially no engine, an automobile at all, whether it had three or four wheels?
Eventually, the FIA established two categories. John Campbell's speed of 403.164 mph, set in 1964, was recognized as the record for axle-driven vehicles and Breedlove's was recognized as the jet-powered record. But Breedlove's speed was surpassed twice in 1964, by Tom Green and Art Arfons. On October 15, Breedlove reclaimed the record with an average of 526.61 mph. He was clocked at 539.89 mph on the second of the required two runs, which ended in a terrible crash when Breedlove couldn't stop the vehicle. Basically uninjured, he announced, "For my next trick, I will set myself afire."
In 1965, Breedlove was back at Bonneville with a new $250,000 car, Sonic I, with a more powerful jet engine. After some fine tuning, he averaged 555.127 mph. Five days later, Arfons raised the mark to 576.553 mph. And eight days after that, on November 15, Breedlove averaged 600.601 mph. In two years, he had raised the land speed record by more than 200 mph and, in the process, he had become the first person to travel more than 400 mph, more than 500 mph, and more than 600 mph on land.