Thursday 29th August 1940

Born on this day, Gary Gabelich, Croatian-American who set the land speed record with his rocket powered automobile “Blue Flame” on October 23, 1970, achieving the average speed of 622.287 (record speed was 622.407)miles/h (1001.452863 km/h) on dry lake bed at Bonneville Salt Flats in Wendover, Utah. This record was the first record over 1000 km/h, it remained unbeaten until 1983, when Richard Noble broke it driving Thrust 2. Gabelich was seriously injured in the crash of an experimental 4 wheel drive Funny Car. Gabelich died in January 1984 in a motorcycle crash.