Look, everyone knows that this business is just not easy. I reckon that it has to be one of the toughest that there is. If it was easy then everyone would be building land speed record cars - and we all know that it doesn't happen very often. Not only is there the huge commitment in designing and building the cars - but there is also the huge cost of development and operation. And the bankers don't want to know, the government is not interested and a stock market placing is unlikely. So it's not something the Establishment easily understands.

As we saw with ThrustSSC, with the exception of Castrol, the corporates ran away when we needed help to get to the US. Suddenly funds were not available and calls were not returned.

Craig has had bad luck. We have got to know the Spirit of America team well - we've even dug their trucks out of the desert, and last night we ate a great meal with them. They are very talented people with a car which Craig explained to Andy as "driver limited" - you really can't get more open than that.

So on the day when ThrustSSC ran an apparently effortless 624mph, with only 13 seconds of full afterburners it was really galling to hear that following SoA's engine problem, the team had hit financial disaster and called a halt to operations. I can't risk our precarious funds but the whole ThrustSSC team is putting in personal funds to try and help.

Are the big American corporates going to help him? Probably not if his is anything like our experience.

Craig is a huge American hero of the old school: he has tremendous courage, guts, honesty and determination - and this mix of old values has brought huge excitement and enjoyment to millions of people over the years. He is the toughest and most highly motivated of competitors - and a great deal of people have made serious money from promotions linked to his activities. In fact whenever you read about him or see his picture, someone sitting at a desk has made money out of him. He deserves a great deal better than this and it's time people showed their appreciation.

If you agree with me, then go to his web site and make a donation. That way we will get the greatest race on God's Earth back on the rails again - but do it quickly, we need the competition operational next week.

And if the public gets him back on the desert, then he should reduce the size of those sponsor ads from companies who fail to help at this very difficult time.

We are all in this together, we are all financially frail, we are all human and from time to time we need a bit of help.

Thank you,
Richard Noble

The author of this article, Richard_Noble, is the ThrustSSC's Project Leader and held the World Land Speed Record from 1983 to 1997.

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