SPEED KING'S DEATH.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 142, 18 June 1929, Page 17

SPEED KING'S DEATH.

RAY KEECH PASSES.

ADYENTUBOTJS CAHEEK. FORMER TRIUMPH RECALLED. Half way through a 200-mile race at Altoona Speedway, Tipton, Pennsylvania, Mr. Ray Keech, a world renowned speed king crashed to his death. He was leading the field at the time, but another machine bore down on him and caused his car to capsize. Until he succeeded in wresting the world's speed record from Captain Malcolm Campbell at Daytona Beach, Florida, in April, 1028, Keech was not a prominent figure in the motor world outside the United States. All eyes were focussed on him, however, when he raised the existing mile record from 206.96 miles an hour to 207.55 miles an hour. His fine performance was put up in the three-engined Triples racing car, owned by Mr. J. M. White, of Philadelphia, in which Mr. Lee Bible was killed at Daytona early this year in attempting to lower S r ir H. 0. D. Segrave's fresh record. At the meeting at which Campbell established his record, Keech, though an entrant, was debarred from competing because his car did not comply with the regulations, halving no differential or reverse gears. Keech's last triumph was in the famous 500-mile event conducted at Indianapolis on May 30 last, when he won from a field of thirty-three. His average speed over the full distance was 97.535 miles an hour.

He also won the Canadian five-mile dirt track championship at. the Canadian National Exhibition on August 28 last year. In June, 1928, it was announced that Keech would be the recipient of Sir Charles Wakefield's annual award of £1000 until his world's record was broken, and also of the gold trophy which Sir Henry Segrave now holds. He actually received the first instalment of the prize. Deaths Of Other Motorists. In recent years many speedsters have met their death in competing in famous events or attempting to create fresh world's figures. In attempting to beat Keech's record on April 26, F. Lockhart was killed at Daytona Beach before the eyes of his wife and thousands of spectators. Almost a month later a prominent speed king, William Spence, of Los Angeles, was killed at Indianapolis. He crashed into a wall, with the result that his skull was crushed. Several other accidents occurred in the ill-fated event, but no deaths were caused. Two years also Parry ("Dare-Devil") Thomas met his death on Pendine Sands, in Carmarthenshire, while travelling at 160 miles an hour in his car "Babs. : ' The world-renowned machine leaped into the air, turned three somersaults, and burst into flames. Mr. Lambert was killed at Brooklands a few years ago, while Count Zborowski met with a similar fate when racing at Monza in Italy in 1924. At Southport on June 24 last year, Miss May C'unliffe was competing in the 100 miles race on the sands, when her car overturned and somersaulted three times. The lady driver escaped with minor injuries, but her father, a passenger, was fatally injured. When competing on the Eockingham Speedway, Salem, U.S.A., on October 13, 1928, the veteran motorist, Fred C'oner, was killed in a 200-mile race. On September 3, 1925, at the Ulster Grand Prix motor cycle meeting, J. C. Allen, of Ayr, crashed and was killed. On July 4, 1927, Henri de C'ourcelles was killed at a meeting of the Automobile Club of France his car striking a tree and toppling into a ditch. Travelling at 100 miles per hour in a practice run, George L. Parkes was killed on August 4, 1926, while in April 1925, an Italian racer, Puccini, met his death on a C'alifornian track. In the same year Pietro Bordino, the Fiat racing champion, crashed to death in a road race in Italv.