A Swindon man says he is “confident” ahead of a Guinness World Records attempt to pull a van the furthest distance in 24 hours - currently set at 32 miles.

After months of checks, Mike Land has finally confirmed a date and place for his day-long ordeal raising thousands for the Wiltshire Air Ambulance charity.

But Mike sees the day-long challenge from midday October 4 to midday October 5 at Down Ampney Airfield in much more optimistic terms.

He said: “I’m feeling pretty confident. He hadn't done 24-hour races, whereas I have. I know what it feels like to get to that stage during the night when you think, I just need to sleep.”(Image: Neil Moore)

Mike was talking about a conversation with the current record holder, James Baker, who along with John Darwen, jointly holds the record after pulling a 1.5-tonne van 32 miles in a day.

James wished Mike luck and said he would do a social media video encouraging him. He also let on that during his attempt, he fell asleep for four hours and John stopped an hour early.

This encouraged Mike further, saying: “He said ‘I missed out on about five hours’. so I think the record is definitely available to be broken.

READ MIKE'S STORY: Man who broke pelvis in freak bungee accident to attempt world record

“But I'm just going to keep pushing on. Because any distance I can gain by not sleeping is going to help me.

“It’s only a day, isn’t it?”

He has been training with his friends “week in week out”, and they will be there with him on the record attempt day encouraging him with music.

“I was born in the seventies, grew up in the eighties, partied in the nineties. So we're going to be rocking some eighties tunes, all the way through the night”, said Mike.(Image: Neil Moore)

Apart from that the key to breaking the record “is all going to be focus”.

Mike hosted a practice pull on May 9, where people could have a go at dragging the Fiat Doblo by a harness around their waist.

He is currently less than £2,000 away from his target of £12,000, the amount it costs for the Wiltshire Air Ambulance to operate for one day.

As Mike said: “It’s a day of my life for providing a day of their life.”

You can donate to Mike here: https://www.givengain.com/project/mike-land-raising-funds-for-wiltshire-air-ambulance