Lange's Stay at Bonneville Salt Flats Comes To An End

Well, it wasn't to be.

Jim Lange headed west to the Bonneville Salt Flats last Thursday for Speed Week to make a run at extending the record he already holds in his 1963 Studebaker Avanti.

But that dream came to a close Monday when Lange took to the long course and around the 4 1/2 mile mark heard a clunk and had to pull over. A rod went through a cylinder on his engine and there is no way to repair for another run. He had hit the 199 mph mark when his engine went.

"I thought it was acting strange," said Lange. "I was up to 199 and just knew I could break the record only to have the engine blow. It's been a year of hard work and a lot of money but things like that happen."

Lange already holds the landspeed record in the Classic Blown Gas Altered Class. He set the record in 2009 at 223.238 mph.

Speed Week at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Wendover, Utah will continue through Friday but for Lange the action is over and he and his crew of Barlow Soper, Billy Oden and Mike Fischer will head back to Effingham.