(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-11-18 22:04

WASHINGTON - Extreme sports fan Alex Roy said Friday he had smashed the record for the fastest "Cannonball run" across the United States, defying police and speed traps.

Car headlights are seen in traffic in this file photo. Extreme sports fan Alex Roy said Friday he had smashed the record for the fastest "Cannonball run" across the United States, defying police and speed traps. [File]

Alex Roy, 35, who waited a year to boast about his exploits and remains vague about the exact dates in a bid to avoid any prosecution, said he had blistered across 13 states in 31 hours and 4 minutes, breaking the old record by more than an hour.

Car enthusiast and rally driver Roy travelled the 4,496 kilometers (2,794 miles) from New York on the East Coast to Santa Monica, California, on the West Coast at an average 145 kilometers (95 miles) an hour.

At times though he reached top speeds of 257 kilometers (160 miles) an hour, breaking the previous record set in 1983 of 32 hours and 17 minutes.

The American driver of German origin set the record at the wheel of his blue BMW stamped with "Team Polizei" and traveled with a cameraman to document the event.

He also equipped his car with several GPS units, police scanners and radar detectors in a bid to avoid any speed traps.

"The GPS really is not that useful because there is only four tolls and maybe four turns between New York and LA. This is purely to calculate our speed and time," he told a television reporter.

He added that normally he's a very careful driver who has only been given one speeding ticket in the past five years.