Gary Gabelich

Gary Michael Gabelich (Croatian Gabelić; August 29, 1940 – January 26, 1984) was an American motorsport driver who set the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) Land Speed Record (LSR) with the rocket car Blue Flame on October 23, 1970,[1] on a dry lake bed at Bonneville Salt Flats near Wendover, Utah.

[2][3] Gary Michael Gabelich[4] was born 29 August 1940 and was raised in southern California and attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School.

After his widow Rae Marie retired from United Airlines in 2003, she was elected to the Long Beach City Council in 2004, where she served for eight years.

Gabelich drove a split window 1960 era Volkswagen delivery van for Vermillion's Drug store in his younger days.

[12] Gabelich was Mercury Seven astronaut Wally Schirra's exact size and he did a lot of space checkout for him and testing of capsules and equipment before they were man-rated for operational use.

[17] The mile FIA LSR was the first exceeding 1,000 km/h (621 mph) and remained unbeaten until 1983, when Richard Noble broke it driving Thrust 2.

This conceptual vehicle was named "American Way"[26] but the project was cut short by his untimely death in January 1984 in a motorcycle crash.

[27] Gabelich was part of the cast in the 1977 movie Joyride to Nowhere and he made a documentary, One Second from Eternity: The History of the Land Speed Record in 1971.