Record Breaking
On 3 October 1970 Tony Densham, driving the Ford-powered "Commuter" dragster set a record at Elvington, averaging 207.6 mph (334.1 km/h). over the Flying Kilometre course. This broke Malcolm Campbell's record set 43 years previously at Pendine Sands.
In 1990 Elvington hosted an attempt to match the speed record run of the Sunbeam Tiger motor car, originally driven by Henry Segrave (on 21 March 1926, he set his first land speed record in his 4-litre Sunbeam Tiger Ladybird on the sands at Southport, England at 152.33 mph). The re-run at Elvington on the two mile (3 km) runway was recorded at 159 mph (256 km/h).
In the summer of 1998, Colin Fallows bettered Richard Noble's outright UK Record in his "Vampire" jet dragster at 269 mph (433 km/h) at Elvington.
The current British Land Speed Record holder is Vampire, driven by Colin Fallows, who hit a speed of 300.3 mph (483.3 km/h) on 5 July 2000 at Elvington.
On 20 September 2006 Elvington Airfield was the location of a serious crash involving the Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond. The jet-powered car he was driving crashed while travelling at 280 mph (450 km/h). Hammond received serious brain injuries but made a full recovery. The accident investigation said: "an almost instantaneous blow out of the right side front tyre caused the accident."
Read more about this topic: RAF Elvington
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