CAPTAIN GEORGE E.T. EYSTON, O.B.E., M.C.
At MacLeod's cafe—an air-conditioned oasis adjacent to the Bonneville salt flats—the waitress ignored her clamoring tourist trade to serve the erect, frosty Englishman with the clipped gray mustache and steely-blue eyes. "Most hospitable, most hospitable," murmured Captain George Eyston. There is every reason why the residents of Wendover, the town bordering the prehistoric lake over whose marble-cool salt flats virtually every speed record has been established, should greatly admire the Captain. He is the sole survivor of speed records' Big Four—Campbell, Jenkins, Eyston and Cobb. Twenty-one years ago over these same flats Captain Eyston drove his monstrous eight-wheeled Thunderbolt at 357.5 mph to duel John Cobb for the world speed record. Five years ago, with Ken Miles, he set 17 records in a little MG. Now 62 and an official of automotive, oil and shipbuilding companies, Captain Eyston leaves record breaking to younger drivers "with more time to remember them," contents himself with returning annually to the salt flats to manage the British speed attempts. "I love the salt flats in September," says George Eyston.
PHOTO
FRANK A. TINKER