Unfortunately the team lost a driveshaft late morning that damaged the differential and were forced to draw a line. However, having completed nearly three times a grand prix distance at Bonneville this week, in an extreme and hostile environment, as well as running at the Mojave, Lyneham and Victorville tests, the
Honda 3-litre V10 was one of the stars of the show.
Mike Cook, president of the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) and veteran of several land speed record attempts at Bonneville, was equally as pleased that the team had stayed on to push its own records even higher.
"First of all, I want to say we really feel the team came out and worked very, very hard right down the side; they are truly Bonneville racers now. We out here call them the
Formula One Hot Rod now because they did everything humanly possible to make this car run as fast as it has," he noted.
"They accomplished a 246.980 average for the mile, which means they have increased their speed again, and they got a 397.481 so today was a success. They didn't get a 400 record but they got their 400 one-way run, so maybe it'll enthuse them to come back! Anyway, they got a record and they're going home with a record."
Bonneville 400 technical director, Gary Savage added: "Today we went racing, this is the racing truth isn't it? The only thing there is, is the stop watch, no excuses, no nothing, you just go for it. The team were fantastic they did everything on the car to get it to go quicker. We did hit 400 for one of our runs, we did 399kph for another and our average is 397kph so it's pretty good really."
![Honda's Alan van der Merwe on one of his land speed record runs on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, USA [Pic credit: Honda]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/244915.jpg)
