Fred Marriott (31 December 1872,

Needham, Massachusetts Needham ( ) is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. A suburb of Boston, its population was 32,091 in the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. Census. It is the home of Olin College. History ...

- 28 April 1956) was an American

race car driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including n ...

. In 1906, he set the world

land speed record The land speed record (LSR) or absolute land speed record is the highest speed achieved by a person using a vehicle on land. By a 1964 agreement between the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and Fédération Internationale de M ...

at 127.659 mph (205.5 km/h) at the

Daytona Beach Road Course The Ormond Beach and Road Course was a motorsport race track that was instrumental in the formation of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. It originally became famous as the location where 15 world land speed records were set. ...

, while driving the Stanley Land Speed Record Car.Biography
at the Birthplace of Speed, Retrieved March 15, 2007 This garnered Stanley Motor Carriage Company the

Dewar Trophy The Dewar Trophy is a cup donated in the early years of the twentieth century by Sir Thomas R. Dewar, MP, to be awarded each year by the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) of the United Kingdom "to the motor car which should successfully complete the m ...

. A crew of four accompanied the car to Daytona, Marriott was chosen to be driver because he was the only bachelor.Boiler Vroom, ''Motorsport'' magazine, April 2006, page 70 An attempt to break the record at Daytona in 1907 used an improved version of the car but the car hit a rut at an estimated speed of 140-150 mph. The car sailed in the air, breaking in half upon impact: Marriott was injured and did not make another attempt to break the record after he recovered. Marriott's mark for the steam land speed record, which had become the longest-standing such record, was finally broken more than 100 years later in August 2009 when Charles Burnett III of the British "Inspiration" team recorded an average speed of 139.843 mph (225.06 km/h) at

Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force installation in California. Most of the base sits in Kern County, California, Kern County, but its eastern end is in San Bernardino County, California, San Bernardino County and a souther ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

References

Land speed record people Steam cars 1872 births 1956 deaths {{US-autoracing-bio-stub