8 RACINGSECOND

Racing at Birkdale Beach.

„SECOND SOUTHPORT MEETING.

LARGA crowds congregated on Birkdale Beach on Saturday the 22nd of last month to watch the Southport Motor Club’s second sand race meeting of the new season. The entry lists promised a good day’s sport, but unfortunately there were a considerable number of non-starters and the meeting as far as the car events were concerned, therefore, did not come up to expectations.

The nine-tenths-of-a-mile course was rather moist and the surface, as the afternoon wore on, became badly churned up. The car events opened with mile sprints, which were followed by ten-mile and twenty-mile races. for 1,500 c.c. and unlimited classes. The paucity of entries, and the fact that a proportion of the competing cars passed out with sundry troubles rendered the long distance events dull, as there were only three in each. Austins and Bugattis figured conspicuously during the meeting as did a special Talbot, named” Golden Beach,” and driven by J. Field. The car events results are as follows :—

LEEDS M.C. TRIAL.

COMPETITORS had to contend with exceptionally rough going in the 120-mile course of the Leeds’ Club’s £200 trial which was run off on the 22nd Iarch.

So severe were the conditions in some sections that the committee decided to divert the route so as to avoid a number water-splashes which would have been impassable through their swollen state, after the heavy rain and snowfall.

STRAIGHT-MILE RACES.

Up to 1,100 c.c.-1, B. L. Byrom (Austin) ; 2, P. Stephenson (Austin) ; 3, D. Scott (Triumph).

Up to 1,500 c.c.-1, J. Field (Talbot) ; 2, A. H. Canan Doyle (Frazer-Nash) ; 3, P. Stephenson (Austin).

Up to 2,000 c.c.-1, J. Field (Talbot) ; 2, R. G. J. Nash (Frazer-Nash) ; 3, J. C. Byrom (Bugatti).

Up to 3,000 c.c.-1, David Brown (Vauxhall-Villiers) ; 2, J. C. Byrom (Bugatti) ; 3, A. H. Barlow (Bentley).

TEN-MILE EVENTS.

1,500 c.c. Class.-1, J. Walker (Bugatti) ; 2, P. Stephenson (Austin).

Unlimited Class.-1, J. C. Byrom (Bugatti) ; 2, P. Stephenson (Austin).

TWENTY-MILE RACE.

1,500 c.c. Class.-1, J. Walker (Bugatti) ; 2, P. Stephenson (Austin). J. C. Byrom (Bugatti) won the James Challenge Cup as the entrant of the car to finish first in the race.

In the afternoon the route lay across the moors and for the most part competitors had to drive over sheer cart tracks. Then came the formidable Gab Wood hill with its hair-pin and bevy of observers, official and otherwise. Some very good climbs were made on this hill and rousing cheers were accorded the star turns. At the conclusion, all concerned voted the trial a

thoroughly sporting and cheery affair. O.C.

Leonard Headlam.

It is with the deepest regret that we have to record the death of Mr. Leonard Headlam, while travelling down to Brooklands on March 18th. While at Cambridge University he was an ardent motorcyclist, and competed successfully in the events of that club. On going down from Cambridge he took up car racing and came rapidly to the fore, and was a formidable competitor in the classic events of the last few seasons. Cheerful and unassuming, alike in victory or defeat, his death will be an irreparable loss, not only to his many friends, but to the sport in which he so Iceenly and skilfully participated.

Count Brilli Pen’s Fatal Crash.

Another of the great names in motor racing passed into history when Count Brilli Pen, the famous Italian driver, was killed on March 22nd,while practising for the Tripoli Grand Prix.