B.A.R.C. OPENING MEETING

B.A.R.C. OPENING MEETING. OLD AND NEW HANDS AT FIRST EVENT.

THE B.A.R.C. are certainly lucky with their weather, and the Arctic conditions of a few days before gave place to a sunny week-end, and the attendance, although not very large in the public enclosure, was quite good for a first meeting. The racing was interesting to regular habitu6s, but owing to rather small entries, lacked some of the spectacular appeal of some of the bigger meetings. Also many of the new hands, and some of the old, were making use of the meeting to feel their feet as regards their handicap, so that performances were rather difficult to gauge correctly, and even the ever-vigilant and all-knowing ” Ebby ” was unable to stage as close results as usual.

New season innovations consisted chiefly of an influx of observers and marshals, who scattered themselves round the track to keep an eagle eye on drivers who might be tempted to depart momentarily from the rules of safety first. The resulting effect gave a somewhat similar atmosphere to the first few days of the new Road Act and its traffic police, but it apparently had the desired effect, and everyone behaved with due circumspection, and none fell foul of the watchers. It is, of course, an admirable scheme to impress drivers with the need for care, provided it is not carried to excess. We could not help feeling that the attitude of some of the old hands is getting just a shade patronising, which does not tend to encourage newcomers. The day opened with a demonstration by A. P. Ashby that he had not been idle during the off season, and his very neat Riley got going well, ran past Twist’s Amilcar and Horsman’s Triumph to win fairly comfortably. Vernon Balls was on scratch with one of the latest ” 90 ” Talbots with a full four-seater touring body, and the car and crew presented a

very neat turnout with their green colour scheme. It was certainly a great compliment to the car’s capabililtes to occupy the position of honour, but at the same time it was one of those compliments which can be carried too far, and he really did very well to run into fourth place.

The Senior Short Handicap wnich followed let Selby and his 2-litre” Bug.”