Civitavecchia, Italy — Along Italy's Mediterranean coast on Thursday, driver Fabio Barone raced across the flight deck of a navy ship while chasing a world record: the fastest car on a boat.

Last year, Barone set the Italian Timekeepers Federation's record on another aircraft carrier in southern Italy, hitting 94.4 mph. In Civitavecchia, on the coast near Rome, he aimed to reach at least 99.4 mph and then hit the brakes in time to avoid launching off the deck's so-called "ski jump" and smashing into the cruise ship stationed just fore.

Race engineer Alessandro Tedino told The Associated Press that he wasn't sure the new record was attainable. The ship had been out at sea overnight, and the crew emerged in the early morning to find its flight deck wet. They immediately set to drying it,

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