Grapevine: BAR resume speed record attempt

Instead, the team are switching their focus to the famous Mojave Airport in California to perform some system checks prior to a possible return to Bonneville next year. The change of plan has had to come about because of bad weather in Utah.

A spokeswoman for Lucky Strike Racing said: "The most important thing is we check that all the systems on the car are working properly. There are lots of new bits that we need to assess.

"It will be an important occasion, but this is just part of the journey. Setting an official F1 land speed record at Bonneville, via the average of out-and-back runs through a measured mile, is still the number one goal - even if we have to wait until next year to do it."

The Mojave Airport is most famous for being the scene of Steve Fossett's take off and landing for his record breaking solo around the world flight earlier this year in his GlobalFlyer plane. Situated just north of Los Angeles, the runway is an impressive 10,000 feet long.

BAR's attempt to reach 400kph in a Formula One car was originally planned to take place in early October but had to be aborted when a spell of rain at Bonneville left the salt flats under water.