While the Thrust team are pushing hard to pack up and finish those last minute engineering items before departure for Jordan on the 26th, radical changes are going on in the Spirit of America camp.

John Ackroyd, enthusiastic safety expert and veteran designer of Thrust2 has joined Breedlove. Ackroyd worked for a period on ThrustSSC also - so he brings with him an intimate knowledge of both the Thrust2/Black Rock operations and the ThrustSSC design, as well as on site experience with the Aussie Invader 2 team at Lake Gairdner.

According to the Spirit of America web site they have accomplished only three runs in around 30 days at Bonneville hitting 85, 221 and 338 mph without the use of afterburner. Time is probably not on their side as winter approaches and they have announced that they intend to run for the record during the period 21st-24th. In order to do this they have to put on at least 300 mph in a very short period - possibly to coincide with a major Shell event in Las Vegas on the 25th which is then likely to stall the team until November 1st.

This is about the time that the Aussie Invader 3 team plan to start preparations at Lake Gairdner.

What is very worrying must be the clear abandonment of careful and safe plans to build speed in small increments. After all Spirit of America is a new car and it may not be reliable enough to make multiple runs each day - so if the target is to be achieved then the speed increments must be large and so must be the risk. Whilst this might be seen by some as macho dare-devilry, the reality is that this forcing of the pace has killed highly experienced drivers before - Cobb, Donald Campbell, Glenn Leasher, Parry Thomas all appeared to be satisfied that their unique experience allowed them to take substantial risks against unfavourable deadlines or conditions. The impact of an accident has horrendous effects on the teams, designers, sponsors, and other challengers whose lives' work may suddenly be wiped out by a violent public swing against record breaking.

So where is Shell in all this? One has to ask whether the Shell executives are aware of what is going on, whether they are encouraging it, and whether they are aware of the huge publicity risk to their corporation if it all goes horribly wrong? The public are much more street wise today than when Donald Campbell was alive.

Vegas and the record - or Vegas or the record?

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