The face of Craig Breedlove is firmly chiseled into the Mt. Rushmore of Land Speed Racing.
Born in 1937, Breedlove got bit by the speed bug early and was storming the Salt Flats of Bonneville, Utah by age 20. But his reputation really took off (pun intended) when he started incorporating jet engines into his racers.
Together with names like Art and Walt Arfons, Breedlove battled for Land Speed Records throughout the 1960s—grabbing himself five world land speed records in the process.
Breedlove is perhaps best remembered for being the first racer to pass the 500 mph mark in 1964 and the 600 mph mark in 1965.
Later, Breedlove struck up an arrangement with American Motors and worked closely with its AMX and Javelin racing development programs, where the specially-prepped cars collected dozens of speed and endurance records.
After he retired from driving, Breedlove continued to surround himself with Land Speed Racing, building cars, and being a general ambassador for autosport.
Craig Breedlove died earlier this week at age 86.
Periscope Film, a curator of original vintage films for public use, has fantastic 1960s-era footage of Craig Breedlove and his quest for ever-increasing speeds. You can check it out below:
Growing up in the 1960’s and 70’s, I never had heros, but was in awe of numerous men who pushed the envelope in their respective fields, including Apollo astronauts, Evel Knievel, and racers/builders in all forms of motorsport.
Mr Breedlove was a towering example of this.
RIP to an amazing man, and a Great American. Godspeed my friend.