THIS is the moment that daredevil Valerie Thompson crashed at 299mph on Monday while attempting to set a 400mph speed record.
Thompson was at the helm of her 21-foot long, 3000cc, 500hp, turbocharged V4 motorcycle and aiming to beat the overall two-wheel record of 376 mph during the World Speed Trials on Lake Gairdner, Australia, when disaster struck.
According to a report from the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme she has passed the four-mile marker and reported being at 299mph when onlookers saw the tail end of her Team 7 Streamliner come up in the air.
Parachutes were immediately deployed, helping to stabilise the resulting crash, however her ‘Bub 7’ motorcycle was extensively damaged with wreckage spread along nearly a mile of the course.
Incredibly 50-year-old Thompson, who had day before broken her own 304mph women’s record with a complete 328 mph run, walked away from the wreck with just minor injuries, a survival attributed to the ‘unique design and engineering’ of her streamliner.
Thompson and team have now returned to their base in Arizona to review the data and in-bike video to try to determine what happened.