The BAR-Honda team has been forced to postpone its Formula 1 land speed record attempt because of torrential rain.
The Bonnevile Salt Flats in Utah, where BAR test driver Alan van der Merwe had aimed to break the 400kph barrier, are currently under an inch of standing water and will not have sufficiently dried out by the time the attempt is scheduled to take place (October 5-8).
“The adverse weather conditions in Bonneville have given us no other option but to postpone the scheduled running of the BAR Honda 067 on the Bonneville Salt Flats," said the team's sporting director Gil de Ferran.
"This is a short term disappointment to the team, but the very nature of attempting to run a car at speeds in excess of 400 km/h on a natural surface means it is always susceptible to bad weather and we were fully prepared for this eventuality."
The team insists that the postponement is only a setback and has sent an observation team out to the US to gather information on when best to try again.
"We will be rescheduling our record attempt once our observation team returns to Brackley," said de Ferran.
"But we are determined to get back out to Utah again as soon as possible.”
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