Jim Lange Aiming to Set Record Higher at Bonneville Salt Flats

Jim Lange with his Studebaker Avanti is attempting a new record at the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Jim Lange is on his way to the Bonneville Salt Flats to push a landspeed record he holds with his Studebaker Avanti higher.

Lange left at 4 a.m. Thursday with his crew, Barlow Soper from Ruston, La., Billy Oden from Effingham and Mike Fischer from Newton. Thursday and Friday the course is being set and officials are there making sure everything is ready to go. Saturday starts racing. He could start racing Saturday but most probably it will be Sunday.

He can run as many times as he wants on the course. He just has to get in line with everyone else that is out there running. Sometimes there are so many he may only get a run or two in during the day while other times he may run more. It’s according to what is going on the course such as wrecks, etc.

There are two courses, the three mile course and the five mile course. Most racers will have to go 175 mph on the three mile course (short course) to qualify to race on the five mile course (long course) but since Lange has already qualified with his former times, he won't have to run the short course.

If he does set a record, the race inspectors will impound his car and he will then have to make a backup run the next day to own the record.

Lange's goal is to push the record up to 260 mph.

In 1989 he went as a member of Ron Hall’s crew to the Bonneville Salt Flats for the first time. He always says he was struck with Salt Fever that first time.

The next year, 1990, he went with his own car and went 168 mph which isn’t great but he learned a lot. In 1995 he set his first record at 191 mph. In 1996 he went back and set the record three different times pushing it to 212.292 mph.

Then in 2009 he set the record at 223.238 and that record still stands. He competes in the Classic Blown Gas Altered Class.

It's called Speed Week at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Wendover, Utah. It runs from August 13 through August 19. Cars, motorcycles and rocket cars converge from around the world to compete for land speed records.