RHEUMATIC FEVER

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30442, 16 May 1964, Page 13

RHEUMATIC FEVER

It was the brand of courage which enabled him to drive a motor cycle at 90 miles an hour over the salt flats of Utah at the age of 14, even though as a schoolboy he had

suffered a bout of rheumatic fever which affected his heart. He suffered another bout during World War II and was invalided out of the Royal Air Force while undergoing training as a pilot. Campbell admits that high-speed driving worries him. “I am very nervous of course,” he said recently, “I alwavs am ** After the Utah crash, Campbell led a new attack on the late John Cobb’s world record. WASHED OUT “The crash hurt my pride as well as my head,” Campbell said. “It frightened me too, but I never thought of quitting." At Lake Eyre last year Campbell spent six weeks tinkering with the car and the salt track until heavy rain washed out the whole project In those weeks the car made very few runs and the top speed was 240 miles an hour. “I am more cautious than I was,” he explained. “It takes longer to go quicker.” This year Campbell Is back at Lake Eyre under a mounting pressure to break the record to prove Bluebird and himself, or to abandon the project for a long time—if not forever. R.A.A.F. medical officers with years of experience of the reaction of pilots under the stress of high-speed flying believe that they can help him overcome the effects of anxiety which might occur during a record attempt. Campbell will be shown the indoctrination film, If necessary several times, to help him control his breathing. He will read literature on the problem.