Well known businessman, and motor enthusiast 'Lolly' Jackson has raced to the aid of blind speedster and motivational speaker Hein Wagner by offering him the loan of the Mercedes SL65 'muscle car' valued at R4.5-million to attempt to break the world blind land speed record at Upington on 6 October.

Wagner became the first South African ever to bring a World Land Speed record to this country in 2005, when he drove a Maserati into the record books with a top speed of 269km/h. He will now hope to average 322km/h (200 miles per hour) on Tuesday in the borrowed car.

Earlier this year Mike Newman, a blind banker from the UK, who has held the record several times, made it public that he will be running for 322km/h in America soon, and Wagner wants to claim this motoring milestone first.

Wagner has managed to again convince his previous navigator, Ray Wakefield of Speedrecord SA in Port Elizabeth, to get in the car with him.

"Ray has played a major role in putting this attempt together and I'm delighted to have a man of his calibre in the passenger seat. In keeping me on the straight and narrow by a non-stop stream of verbal instructions, Ray will be running for a very unique record himself, for if I break the blind land speed record he will automatically become the fastest Back-Seat-Driver in the world!

The biggest hurdle to overcome thus far was arranging the insurance cover however Gary Whittle from GCSS has come to the party with cover for the attempt" says Wagner.

"Although we primarily want to bring this World Record back to South Africa, we are also using this as a fund raising event to support the Vision Trust, which is a public benefit trust that aims to make the world a more accessible place for persons with disabilities".

Browse www.heinwagner.co.za for more information on Hein Wagner and the Vision trust.

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