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Austin Healey breaks 1000 km speed record at MIRA
By smgenglish SOCIAL MEDIA on 24 November 2009 | 
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Sunday 15th November 2009 saw the 'Healey Endurance' car built by Denis Welch Motorsport attempt the International and National speed record up to 1000 Km (International Group 2 Class 8 non supercharged). The car successfully completed 308 laps at record breaking speed, averaging 148.22 mph. The ambition was to beat the non-supercharged 4 cylinder records set by the Healey works team in 1954 at 132.81 mph and the current National records held by Prodrive.
So mission accomplished so far. It is now subject to FIA & MSA homologation as to whether the 6 International and 9 National records under consideration are confirmed. The car had a trouble free run with 3 scheduled pit stops and was driven by owner Martyn Corfield and Engineer Jeremy Welch in 4 stints of one hour each.
A further pit stop was made after Martyn was spun across the track at 150 mph due to the damp surface from that morning and previous day’s torrential rain and howling gales. After such a mind numbing moment he was still able to gather the car, losing little time and after a safety check carry on unabated to the next scheduled stop. “ We have made a great attempt at the 1000 km endurance record this weekend and subject to confirmation are happy that the car has performed brilliantly achieving near the theoretical maximum calculated by MIRA in 2009 which is better than we could ever have hoped for. It’s definitely the fastest Austin Healey in the World today at 153.44 mph, according to the stopwatch and is now the subject to FIA & MSA homologation to see whether the official International and National records have been achieved. We are looking forward to releasing more news shortly” commented Jeremy Welch.
Keep up to date on progress at www.healeyendurance.com
Photographs courtesy of Crucial Image www.crucialimage.org.uk
