MOTOR CAR RACE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 73, 27 March 1922, Page 2

MOTOR CAR RACE.

RUN-OFF AT MURIWAI. ■ AX EXCITING FINISH. | A motor car race, which was a j sequel to the win of .Mr. Selwyn : Craig's Packard in the Xew Zealand Cup race at Muriwai on March 11. was run oir at Muriwai Beach on riaturdav. the I contestants fbeing W. S. Miller's Chandler, All ("tiee's Cadillac. S. Craig's Packard and C. E. Johnston's Hudson. In the cup race the Hudson, which experienced water trouble, ran unplaced, and this match w-.ts the result of a debate about tho merits of tho respective cars in the event nf all getting a clear run. The cup race of fifty miles was done iv 42m 30 1-os. About *iOO people turned out to see the run-oft. The wind wa s blowing a gale straight dawn the beach and the air was full of sand, making it very difficult tt, drive without goggles. " Mr. Percy Free act-_ as sxarter and judge, and the cars were let go to an even dispatch for the 7,0 mile trial. The cars had all wonderfully improved since cup day. and there was not much to choose at the end of 12i miles between the Packard, first. Cadillac second, and Hudson, third. W. S. Miller had to retire owing to a tyre blow-out. They ah took the turn very quietly, and "probably they made better time in going quietly than in the wild turns they made in the cup race. The total time for the race was 87m 1.1 2-.is. On the last lap the Packard retired owing to some trouble experienced with the oiling. which left only Johnston with the Hudson and Ah Ghee with the Cadillac to finish. Johnston took the lead in the last lap and was overtaken again fov the Cadillac about ten miles from, the finish. A desperate finish resulted with the Cadillac winning 'by two-fifths of a second. An even more exciting experience than the race itself was de return home 'by spectators and competitors. Iniu-diateli- the r-.i P e v.ns fini=hed fri" rain started tn fall heavily, and a wild ru|h was made to endeavour to net the cars away and over the clay tracks and sidings that sometime* communicate }■&- tween the 'beach and the main road. The downpour got there first, however, and the track to the road speedily became a procession of "snorts'' in difficulties and various drenched and bcdraffgled stages of deshabille as they slonped and paddled throuch clay pools and tinkered, toiled, pushed, lugged and dusr at baulking cars (some of them without wheel chains) to rescue their speed pets from abandonment in the storm. Most of the cars eventually "tanked" their way ihrrii'T'i -he Rloueh. though one or two had to foe temporarily abandoned by tbe nay. unci there w.ns r, weird -issnrnblase of speed kinss as the mud-decked sportive ones crawled nut from the shellholes of no-man's-land to the safety of Huapfi for a breather, and to discuss the advantages of joining the aero club.