> Forced to cancel his assault on John Cobb's world land-speed record (394.196 m.p.h.) when officials at Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats ruled the surface too dangerously rough for his 3,200-h.p. super-hot-rod Challenger I, California's Mickey Thompson turned up instead in a 1962 Pontiac, smashed 50 U.S. stock-car recordsdespite a blundering pit crew that set the engine afire by spilling oil on it and then proceeded to spray Thompson in the face with gasoline. Over one kilometer from a flying start, the Pontiac was clocked at 153.64 m.p.h., and it averaged 143.12 m.p.h. through...
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