SPEED RECORD ATTEMPT

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29273, 3 August 1960, Page 13

SPEED RECORD ATTEMPT

Driver Killed In 300 m.p.h. Crash BONNEVILLE SALT FLATS . (Utah), August 1. A sports car driver, Athol Graham, was killed today in a 300-miles-an-hour crash. His car overturned and cartwheeled for three-quarters of a mile. Graham ,aged 36, was trying to break the world land-speed record in his 3000 horse-power car. It landed on its top with Graham still in the cockpit. He was flown to hospital in Salt Lake City, where he died.

The crash occurred as Graham brought his low-slung red racer towards the measured mile on the three-mile course at Bonneville Salt Flats.

The car, which carried 18 gallons of 145 octane petrol, did not burn. Graham was attempting to set a new record of 400 miles an hour. It was not known how fast the car was travelling, but observers said it must have been at least 300 miles an hour. Officials who looked over the wreckage of his car said the left front wheel • apparently had broken off at the hub. Horrifled witnesses of the accident said it was a case of too much power and not enough traction. Graham was the first of four racers scheduled to try for a new speed record on the Salt Flats this month. The record of 394.196 m.p.h. was set here in 1947 by the late John Cobb, of England. The others scheduled to try for the new record are Donald Campbell, of London, who has a 3,000,000 dollar (about £1,340,000) gas-turbine car,- Micky Thompson, of El Monte, California, and Dr. Nathan Ostich, of Los Angeles. Graham said his car cost only a few thousand dollars, not counting his own time and skill

Lindrum’s Funeral.—More than 1500 sportsmen and public figures packed St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral, Melbourne, at the funeral service -for Walter landrum today. Lindrum, who died in Queensland on Saturday, aged 61, was regarded as the greatest billiards player the world has seen. —Melbourne, August 2.