Tragic 1962 Bonneville Salt Flats Crash: Glenn Leasher's Fatal Land Speed Record Attempt 🏁

An ill fated Land Speed Record attempt at Bonneville Salt Flats on Monday, 10 September 1962, claimed driver Glenn Leasher's life. He was driving his Infinity car, an F86-Sabre Jet engined race car, that had been built and owned by Romeo Palimedes.

A well-known drag racing driver, Glenn Leasher, 26, was attempting to break the existing World Speed Record of 394.19 mi/h (634.39 km/h) set fifteen years previously at Bonneville Salt Flats by Britain's Sir John Cobb in his Railton-Mobil Special. During his first practice run on Sunday, Leasher had been clocked at 330 mi/h (531 km/h), then on Monday early morning he reached just 287 mi/h (462 km/h). Later in the day he decided to take a second test run.

After entering the measured mile, at an estimate speed of well over 350 mi/h (563 km/h), Leasher's engine's afterburner went off. Infinity left the ground, exploded before it veered off the track and disintegrated, scattering parts as it struck the ground. Glenn Leasher was killed instantly when the car landed on its nose and cartwheeled into hundreds of pieces. Only the engine was found intact.

Originally from Oskaloosa in Mahaska County, Iowa, but recently living in Burlingame in San Mateo County, California, Glenn Leasher was survived by his wife Lynn, née Bostic, whom he had married in secret in January of 1962. The couple had planned to announce their marriage the day he attempted the World Speed Record. He was buried at Resthaven Gardens of Memory in Wichita, Sedgwick County, Kansas.

This was reported to be the third fatality at Bonneville Salt Flats, the second since Athol Graham was killed in 1960. Glenn Leasher's accident happened almost exactly the spot where Donald Campbell was severely injured after crashing his newly built Bluebird CN7 in 1960.

R.I.P