Gary Michael Gabelich

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Gabelich

Gary Gabelich (29. kolovoza, 1940. - siječanj 1984.) bio je Amerikanac hrvatskog podrijetla,[1] koji je postavio zemaljski brzinski rekord sa svojom raketom pogonjenom automobilu "Blue Flame" ("Plavi plamen") 23. veljače 1970., postignuvši prosječnu brzinu od 1001,259 873 km/h (maksimalna brzina bila je 1001, 452863 km/h na osušenom jezeru Bonneville Salt Flats u Wendoveru, savezna država Utah. To je bio prvi rekord preko 1000 km/h. Ostao je neoboriv sve do 1983., kada ga je Richard Noble oborio sa svojim bolidom Thrust 2. Gabelich je poginuo u siječnju 1984. u motociklističkoj nesreći.

Gary Gabelich, (born Aug. 29, 1940, Long Beach, Calif., U.S.—died Jan. 26, 1984, San Pedro, Calif.), American automobile-racing driver who set a world one-mile land-speed record of 622.407 miles per hour (1,001.67 km/h) on Oct. 23, 1970.Gabelich began racing hot-rod cars while he was in high school. In the late 1950s he competed as a drag racer of both automobiles and boats. In 1969 he set a drag-boat record of 200.44 miles per hour (322.38 km/h). He achieved his 1970 one-mile land-speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats (Utah) in the Blue Flame, a rocket-powered, bullet-shaped car. This record was unofficially broken by Stan Barrett in 1979 and was officially surpassed by Richard Noble in 1983.