USA Chases Land Speed Record

Nov. 8 - There's a healthy rivalry brewing between the U.S. and U.K. over the world land speed racing record. The Brits took if from the U.S. in 1997, and now the U.S. wants it back. Today the record stands at just over 763mph, captured by the British on October 15th 1997 with the ThrustSSC jet powered car.

Now, an American/Canadian team in Washington State has a 50,000hp converted F-104 jet car ready to travel over 800 mph to bring the record back to the U.S. Interest in the sport of World Land Speed Racing has recently been sparked with the announcement that current record holder, Andy Green, was teaming up with Richard Noble, the previous record-holder, to have
another go at the record.

In an interview with the Seattle Weekly earlier this year Green stated: "I am a big supporter of the current and planned attempts on the World Land Speed Record -- 11 years is more than long enough for it to stand and it's high time that someone got out there and broke it again -- preferably several times."

The only thing stopping a hale and hearty U.S. and U.K. rivalry is lack of sponsorship money to fund the effort. "World Land Speed Record Racing is an expensive sport," stated Douglas Schwartz, Media Director for the team. "The North American Eagle has the power and the aerodynamics to break the record in 2009.