Two hours later an embarrassed chief timer visited the Wendover garage where Campbell and his crew were preparing for the next day's run. The official told them there was a mathematical error in figuring the combined time of the runs. The correct figure was 301.13 mph. Sir Malcolm had his coveted record.

He was the guest of honor at a civic luncheon where he sat next to Heber J. Grant, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The two men, on the surface very different, hit it off. Their friendship continued for several years through letters and exchanges of books, some the men themselves had written.

When I interviewed Sir Malcolm in his London office a year-and-a-half after his triumph on the Salt Flats, he pointed to a shelf of books President Grant had sent. One was a biography of Brigham Young. "He was an extraordinary man," Sir Malcolm commented.

On another shelf were at least a half-dozen books Campbell had written, mostly on automotive and safety subjects. Just before I left he walked over to his bookshelves and pulled out a book he had written called "Searching for Pirate Treasure in Cocos Island."

"We never found any gold," he said as he autographed a copy and handed it to me. "But we had a good time looking for it."

After he set the 300 mph mark, Sir Malcolm gave up auto racing and put his beloved Bluebird in a museum. Looking for a new challenge, he took up motorboat racing, and two years after setting the land-speed record on the Salt Flats, he set a new water-speed record on Lake Maggiore, Switzerland. He became the only man to hold the land-and water-speed records at the same time.

Meanwhile, George Eyston and John Cobb were making plans to go after Sir Malcolm's land-speed record. I interviewed both men about their upcoming attempts to break the one-mile speed record. They had both helped design new racing machines that were different from each other. Eyston's was seven tons with a steel body. Cobb's was a three-ton vehicle with an aluminum body.

At the press preview of Cobb's car at Brooklands racetrack in Surrey, England, one reporter wisecracked that it looked like a giant turtle. (Also at the preview was a young Associated Press reporter named James "Scotty" Reston, who many years later became the distinguished columnist and editor of the New York Times.)

When I talked to Eyston over lunch at his home in Lennox Gardens, he told me he was taking his new machine to the Salt Flats in the fall of 1937, in hopes of breaking Campbell's record. Not long after our lunch, Eyston and his wife were guests at a dinner at the Royal Automobile Club honoring President Heber J. Grant, who was in London for the church's centennial celebration.

Eyston spoke at the dinner, announcing he was leaving soon for Utah to try to set a new speed mark. He went out of his way to praise Utahns for their hospitality on his previous visits.