MANNIN MOAR AND MANNIN BEG RACES. THE DOUGLAS ROUND-THE-TOWN CIRCUIT FINALLY SETTLED.
AS forecast in our last issue, some alteration in the circuit for the Douglas races has been made in order to lessen the advantages of bigger cars. Instead of putting down artificial corners round sandbanks on the Promenade, the organisers have slowed down the .course by taking it at right angles off the middle of the Promenade, and by cutting out the fast run up hill to past the motorcycle stands and replacing it by a winding section below the playing fields. This leaves the fast Promenade section untouched, a decision which will meet with everyone’s approval. Since the circuit no longer passes the ‘CT. stands, another site for them has had to be found. They will be placed on the terrace of the Villa Marina, which is a municipal gardens and place of entertainment on the edge of the Promenade looking out over the Bay. The start and finish will take place here, organisation being simplified by the width of the road. ILA A hundred yards from the start the new course turns to the right through a right angle turn, followed by a similar left turn 50 yards further on. The road runs uphill from there to the Government Buildings, and the cars will sweep round the front of it in almost a hairpin bend to rejoin the original course at Bucks Road. Woodburn and Laureston Roads are followed with a left turn into Ballaquayle Road, but 100 yards further instead of keeping on as far as the top of Bray Hill, as was originally intended, the route turns right along the bottom of the Playing Fields, right again a hundred yards further on, then left, right, and then left on to Victoria Road. These corners are all right angles, so will put a premium on handiness and ease of control. Victoria Road is comparatively straightforward and leads upwards to the end of Glencrutchery Road, just at Governors Bridge. The famous Bridge is considered too narrow for cars and so they will take the main road which cuts straight across the dip,
and so on to Onchan as had originally been arranged. The extra windy section at the top of the town adds slightly to the length of the circuit, which is now about 5 miles long. The races are each intended to be about 250 miles in length.
There will be no restrictions as to the dimensions of the bodies, but mechanics have to be carried. The race for the smaller cars is of course for those up to 1,100 c.c. blown and 1,500 c.c. unblown, the larger ones running on the second day. People with 1,500 c.c. supercharged cars will not care very much for this line of division, but there are a sufficient number of keen enthusiasts who will enter a race of this sort as long as they have a good run for their money to make sure that the requisite thirty entries for each race will be forthcoming. On another page we discuss at length the suggestion of having races for supercharged and unsupercharged cars, which has a number of points in its favour.
