'Drove like a devil, lived like a saint': the man who broke over 500 speed records

Who?

Drove like the devil, lived like a saint. Meet Ab Jenkins: breaker of over 500 speed records, pioneer of the Bonneville Salt Flats, city mayor, devout Mormon.

Not a exactly a party animal, then?

Not unless your idea of a party is ‘driving a mad homebuilt plane-engined racecar very far, very fast, before having an early night with a cup of tea and the bible’.

Ah, the original grindset.

Born in 1883, David Abbott Jenkins shot to national fame in 1926, racing his Studebaker non-stop from New York to San Francisco in a record-breaking 86 hours, beating the train while fuelled by nothing stronger than prayer and perseverance. But it was on the salt flats that the teetotal, god-fearing Jenkins found his calling, establishing Bonneville as a temple of speed in the process.

Were maniacal speed merchants of the 1930s all so... wholesome?

They were not. His rivals were generally known for hard drinking, harder living, and dying young. Jenkins? In the final laps of 24-hour runs, he’d whip out a safety razor and shave – one handed, at 100+mph – just to look presentable for the finish line photo call. Priorities, people.

And hang on... he was a mayor, too?

Yep. Adored by the Utah public, in 1940, Jenkins was elected mayor of Salt Lake City, despite not campaigning at any point. Nothing says ‘vote for me’ like a few hundred speed records under your belt, it would seem.

At which point he hung up his race boots?

Absolutely not. In fact, it was while serving as mayor that Jenkins achieved arguably his most legendary feat on the salt flats, piloting his Mormon Meteor III – a custom land-speed racer powered by a 750bhp, 26-litre V12 aircraft engine – over 3,868 miles in 24 hours at an average speed of 161mph in 1940, a record that would stand for 50 years. Presumably civic duties were light that week.

Embarrassingly for modern men, it took a team of eight to beat Jenkins’ achievement in 1990.

And then he hung up his race boots?

Again, not so much. Jenkins continued to push boundaries to the very end, setting his final speed record at the age of 73 and perishing of a heart attack a couple of months later. Never drank, never smoked, never crashed hard, never slowed down. Amen to that.