On this day in 1974 Buddy Baker drove a 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona to 200.447 MPH at Talladega during “transmission testing.” During the run he became the first person to break 200 MPH on a closed circuit track. Scroll down to see video of the run and then check out great this article from Hagerty about Larry Rathgeb, one of the engineers of the Daytona program. He unfortunately passed away in 2020 due to complications with Coronavirus. (Video below).
Original video of the record setting run:
