After his attempt to break the wheel-driven land speed record ended in heartbreak in September, Danny Thompson and his team have decided to give it another try.

“As many of you know, I had planned to retire the car after the 2016 season, regardless of the result,” Thompson said. “That was probably the right decision, but after capturing the SCTA AA/FS record at 406.7mph, the team and I thought ending things now would mean leaving too much of the car’s potential on the table. So we’re going to give it one more try in 2017 before packing things up for good.”

Thompson’s September attempt at Mike Cook’s Land Speed Shootout came to an abrupt end when Challenger 2 broke a driveshaft. The team evaluated the heavy damage to the rear support and suspension components and concluded that they could not repair it.

“As best we can reconstruct things, the rear u-joint in the driveshaft broke during the shift between second and third gear,” Thompson said. “The joint took out the rear track bars, which caused the nose of the rear end to drop. Meanwhile, the driveshaft broke the safety hoops and drove the transmission yoke into the case. It then took out the left rear tire, causing the car to enter into a long slide. The shaft actually exited the vehicle briefly, but then reentered through the side and damaged the breather tank and several more panels. It then broke free again, this time making it more than 200 hundred yards before bouncing to a stop. I was fine obviously, but it was one hell of a ride.”

Thompson says the team will use Speed Week to test some upgrades and try to bump their current 406.7mph record if conditions allow.

“We’ll then travel back to the salt for an attempt at the current 414mph FIA record,” he continued. “As always, the overall goal is to become the fastest piston car in history. That is a lofty ambition, and achieving it would require two back-to-back runs over 444mph (the current record holder is George Poteet’s Speed Demon, which has set an incredibly high bar in terms of both performance and consistency). Do I think that’s possible? Yes. Will it be easy? Absolutely not.”

Thompson also said the team will need to raise substantial funds in order to make both Speed Week (August 12-18th) and Cook’s FIA Shootout.