CYCLE AND MOTOR.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 5, 6 January 1920, Page 7

CYCLE AND MOTOR.

Motor cycle racing is very likely to [ come into its own in .Auckland, although jup to the present, save* for a certain small affair some three or four years ago, a "big motor cycle meeting has never been held here in Auckland. In the I Sooth, at Ohristchurch and Palmerston j North particularly, and quite lately at ! Gisbornc, motor cycle meets that have opened -the eyes of the public have been held, and, indeed, the latest event of its j kind, held at Gishome some days ago, [ provided thrills enough to satisfy anybody. A series of seven cycle races is to be ! held at Alexandra Park, on the trotting j track, on Saturday. These will commence at 1.30 p.m., and will comprise events that run from fiv» laps of the threeI quarter mile course up to the Great j Northern Championship of 20 laps, and | tho Victoria Handicap of 16. The meet- ; ing is being held under the auspices of ! the Auckland Provincial Motor Cycling 'Club. J j 'Several Southern riders are coming up :to try their machines over the course, , and "the events will include a couple of I provincial championships. One of the j formenrost of the riders to participate iis Mr. Percy Coleman, who has done | ■wonders with a 'big eight-valve machine, including the capture of the World's record on a grass track when he covered 115 miles at Christchurch from a stand- ! ing start in 13 minutes 30 seconds. This record still stands. At Marton also he : put up a. world's grass track championship by covering a mile and 50 yards on ] lan Indian cycle in 31 3-5 seconds. Young Coleman is a New Zealander, i and only 31 years of age, a quiet-spoken ' young fellow, who has just returned ' from a nine-months visit to America. He went along to Los Angeles, where he rods in a big 200-mile national championship. Hampered by punctures and a few mistakes by his assistants, yet he finished sixth, the first of the Indian riders in the : race. That was on an asphalt track, t Coleman is riding an eight-valve bike on 1 Saturday; one built on the latest speed * lines, and its twin recently at Sheepe--3 head Bay, New York, covered two miles 3 in Ijl'l, or at a. rate of 101 miles per 3 hoar. . 0 . The young man began his riding career "' at Ashhurst in 1912, on a 3 J 'h.p. Humber. t The next year on a Douglas he won the »I New Zealand Lightweight Championshir. '- at Trentham, and in ItU'o, still on the ' Douglas, he won a few handicap events, P In 1015 he graduated to a 7 h.p. Indian '" winning the Bret New Zealand Heavy s Championship at the age of 18. Since 3 j then he has raced on a 'Big X, and ther j returned to the Indian. In 1907 he left J a flying mile behind in 51 3-s*. jj. This rider has had remarkably few J* accidents. Three times he has fallen of a ibike without harm, hut the mosi a I serious accident he ha 3 met yet, sinc< Ihe has indulged in a sport commonlj 6 called very dangerous, was when, return •" img from a race meeting one dark nighi 0 he ran his machine into a dray loadee l " with wood. This meant a broken am 1~,l ~ , and a rip on the stomach.