FOR SPEED CROWN.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 19, 23 January 1929, Page 7

FOR SPEED CROWN.

American And Briton May Race

At Daytona.

CAR CAN DO 250 M.P.H.

(United Service.) (Received 10.30 a.m.)

LONDON, January 22.

Major Segrave, the British motor racing expert, will' have a rival at Daytona Beach, Florida, when, in March, he attempts to gain the world's speed record, with his 450 horse-power car. According to private cables, the famous "Skyrocket" Ralph de Palma, America's former speed king, has persuaded J. A. Keech, the holder of the 207 miles per hour world's record, to let him drive his 1500 horse-power car, Triplex.

Major Segrave is aged 36 years, while Palma is 42. The latter is trying to get the American Racing Board to lay out two courses so that he and Segrave may make a race at 240 miles an hour or more. Daytona Beach is 20 miles long and there is a six-mile stretch level and as smooth as asphalt, 800 to 600 yards wide, at low water, making ample room for two courses.

A certain amount of American influence is backing up the idea. Keech's car has unofficially timed 238 miles per hour and since then has been reconstructed. Three new Liberty aeroengines have been installed and the theoretical maximum speed is reported to be 250 miles an hour.