World's Fastest Stock Car

Tuesday, October 9, 2007, Russ Wicks set a new stock car world speed record of 244.9 MPH which was confirmed by Guinness World Records.   Wicks hit a top speed of 247 MPH in a NASCAR-spec stock car on the Bonneville Salt Flats in northwestern Utah.

During 2006, Wicks broke the World Stock Car Speed Record in a NASCAR-spec Ford Taurus averaging 222 MPH through the measured mile.   The runs across the Bonneville Salt Flats broke Bobby Isaac's 216 MPH record set in 1971.   Wicks also drove the Autodesk Stock Car in a non-spec NASCAR configuration and made a 237 MPH one-way pass through the measured mile.

Wicks has received the official document certifying the 2006 records:

222.623 MPH World Stock Car Speed Record

237.324 MPH run in the Modified Stock Car.

The "flying mile" World Speed Record for Stock Cars had not been broken in nearly 35 years.   Bobby Isaac previously set the benchmark of 216 miles per hour in September 1971 in a NASCAR Grand Nationalspec vehicle on the Bonneville Salt Flats near Wendover, Utah.

Russ Wicks is now the only living driver to have set official speed records of over 200 mph on land and water, as he also holds the mile record for propeller-driven boats of 205.494 mph, set June 15, 2000 in the Miss Freei unlimited hydroplane on Seattle’s Lake Washington.