MOTOR SPORT
THE LEINSTER TROPHY CAR RACE
WELL-DESERVED VICTORY FOR MISS FAY TAYLOUR DRIVING AN ADLERMANY CRASHES BUT NO FATALITIES.
THE Leinster Motor Cycle and Car Club madetheir first attempt last month at running a car race on the well-known Skerries Circuit, near Dublin, and a very successful attempt it proved to be. There were 31 entrants, and of these 29 cars actually came to the starting line. The race was run on handicap, a combination of credit laps and time allowances being used.
The Skerries course has been used a good deal for motor-cycle races, but is not .entirely suitable for cars. The road often narrows, so that several no-pairing sections had to be introduced on August 3rd. From the start, discerning Observers could see that Nfiss Fay Taylour would be well in the running for first place, Miss Taylour actually hails from Dublin, but her racing career has been confined to this country and Australia. A few years ago she held the lap record for Wembley Speedway, and her dirt-track performances on motor cycles earned her a considerable reputation.
:Miss Taylour received a start of 2 minutes and one credit lap, and after five laps was in third place behind A. Davidson (Austin) and D. O’Clery’s (Riley), which had received 1 lap and 61 minutes. Behind them came Dr. C. Maclachlan (Riley), who later had to fall back with lack of oil pressure, F. O’Boyle on another (Riley), two more Adlers driven by R. B. S. le Faun, winner of the Bray race in May, and the motor-cyclist C. H. W. Manders. The back markers were coming up well, notably A. Dobson (Alfa-Romeo 2-litres), M. C. McFerran (Bugatti), and W, T. NIcCalla (2-litre C.P. Sunbeam). Adrian Conan Doyle was handicapped badly by the size of his Merced6s-Benz on the winding circuit, but he was making a good job of his task. As had been predicted, there were some sensational accidents. F. Sutherland (Singer) got out of control on an S bend and cannoned from side to side of the road. Eventually he was thrown out and badly hurt, while his car rolled over for about
THE BRIGHTON TRACK.
In the face of the sternest opposition imaginable, the sponsors of the proposed Brighton road-racing course have persevered with their efforts to such purpose that all opposition has now been withdrawn. There remains now the question of finance, and if this last hurdle can be satisfactory surmounted, it is the intention to start work on constructing the course in October. The length of the circuit will be 41 miles with two loops of 21 miles which can be used for shorter races, if desired. The road is to be 30 feet wide, without any banking on the corners, and the public will be able to see every part of the course from the grandstand
100 yards. The most spectacular pile-up occurred, however, when j. Berhery inverted his Sunbeam in the path of three other cars. The worst to suffer was C. W. Taylor, who rammed the bank With his Singer in trying to avoid the Sunbeam. With Taylor it was a case of “out of the frying pan into the fire.” for while being takeil back to the pits by C. Wilson (Vauxhall) who had retired, the latter nearly turned over and threw the luckless Taylor into the road.
The steady driving of Miss Taylour was a model which many other drivers would have done well to copy, and placed her in a fairly side position in the lead. The danger lay in Dobson’s Alfa-Romeo, but in spite of lapping at 75 m.p.h. (10 mins. 21secs.) on one occasion, the latter could not catch the Adler. Dobson had the satisfaction of making the fastest actual time in the race, exactly three minutes quicker than Miss Taylour.