MARTYRS TO SPEED.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 215, 11 September 1928, Page 9

MARTYRS TO SPEED.

Car Shot Like Projectile Unions Spectators. GREATEST TRAGEDY OP RACING Uastratlaa Press Assa—Ualted ServJeej MILAN, September 10. The crash on the Monza motor racing track when Materassi, one of the best known drivers on the Continent, touched the wheel- of a competitor when travelling at 125 miles an hour and was hurtled amongst the spectators, killing nineteen, is believed to be the worst in £he history of motor racing. '■' Materassi had changed * wheel in the second lap, but a stupendous effort enabled him to make updnuch of; hi* lost ground. He had forced his way into fifth place when ho .came into the straight near the grandstand.. '"■",' There Materassi made a desperate attempt to overtake Foresti, who was driving a. Bngatti car; He had accelerated to 195 miles an hour when the near front wheel of his Talbot touched. t the offside of the Bngatti. Materassi's ear swerved violently to the right, then leapt to the left! Finally it shot like a giant projectile across a 10ft ditch into the spectators massed in front of the grandstand. "Men, women and children, many of whom had waited, all night to secure a favoured place, were mown down like reeds," said an eye-witness of the tragedy. Materassi was hurled from the ear, and died on the track in a few minutes. The spectators were panic-stricken. They broke through the barriers and stampeded on to the track in spite of the fact that the other motorists, who were unaware of the accident, continued racing. The ambulance men were totally unprepared for an accident of such magnitude, and it was a long time before the injured were conveyed to hospital. Leonardi was killed on the Monza, track in 1925, and Sivocci and Pordino were killed there in 1927. Materassi won the Grand Prix de San Sebastian in 1927, when he drove 433 miles at an average speed of 80 miles an hour.

The European motoring grand prix was won by Chirch (France). He drove a Bugatti car at an average speed of 100 miles an hour;