LEFT:J L Burton ready to leave on his record-breaking 1915 transcontinental drive. White "boxes" on running board are extra tins of petrol.RIGHT: Stripped to the rails. J L Burton and co-driver Haythorne in the Studebaker, ready for the Albany record run in 1915. (WA Motorist and Wheelman)

J L Burton's competition career was confined to interstate and inter-town record breaking, a career which lasted nearly ten years, from 1915 to 1924.

His first record-breaking run was from Perth to Sydney in a Studebaker in 1915. Then followed the Albany to Armadale record in the same Studebaker, stripped to the bone, and after the end of the First World War he chopped a full day off his existing Perth to Sydney record, this time in a 1917 Hupmobile.

In 1923 he had another go in a Vauxhall 30/98, and took another half a day from the record. In 1924 another dash saw him cut almost a day from his previous record. By now it was just 5 days 21 hours 45 minutes. Although that doesn't sound an impressive time, it's worth remembering that until World War 2 there was no road across the Nullarbor. The record breakers carried their own fuel, and blazed tracks through the virgin bush.

By the 1920s, however, town-to-town records were of diminishing public interest, and dealers were no longer preared to sponsor these efforts, which were, after all, strictly for publicity purposes. Burton's brief days of fame were over.

ACHIEVEMENTS

1915	Perth-Sydney	Studebaker	8 days 23 minutes
1915	Perth-Albany	Studebaker	7 hrs 28 minutes
1919	Perth-Sydney	Hupmobile	7 days 2 hrs 15 minutes
1923	Perth-Sydney	Vauxhall 30/98	6 days 13 hrs 57 minutes
1924	Perth-Sydney		5 days 21 hours 45 minutes