Pardon me Ian, I don't want any hurt feelings, but this, from your website story on An Stradag's run is incorrect:
"An American team, called 'Cloud Electric' had achieved a speed of 70.06 mph in 1995 but that attempt was not UIM approved because they only made one run."
Dave Cloud's boat (see attachment) driven by David Mischke ran the kilo in October 1995 and made both passes. the down pass was about 73 mph, the return was 68 plus. The two-way average was 70.597 mph. Bear in mind here that Helen's best single pass speed was only one tenth second faster than Mischke's two-pass average. Sorry if I seem a little gruff about this, I support the An Stradag effort and am happy to cheer them on, but I've heard this tale several times now from UK sources and I think it needs to be put right.
The reason the record was never certified was because Dave's notoriously cheap, and didn't want to hand UIM $400 when Guinness would list his record at no cost.
If you need confirmation of the date and speeds turned, they can be obtained by contacting Gloria Urbin at: apbahq@apba-racing.com
If you wish, you can E-mail Dave at this address: cloudvolt@hotmail.com
Again, no hard feelings, I'm just a little tired of hearing that the Cloud record was incomplete or that it wasn't a UIM mark due to cheating or some dark conspiracy.
John