AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 83, 8 April 1930, Page 17

AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX.

The Australian Grand Prix 200 miles road race of the Victorian Light Car Club, run at Phillip Island on Eight Hours Day, resulted in an easy victory for W. Thompson, of Sydney, in his Bugatti. His time was 3h Gin —an average speed of 65 m.p.h. Out of the 28 entrants for the race, 22 started and were classified according to engine capacity into three grades —A, B and C. Each class was sent off irom scratch at a 3m interval. Winners in the different classes were as follow: —Class A, cars under 850 c.c, C. E. Dickason (7 h.p. Austin), 3h. 30m, 1; class Blunder 1100 c.c, G. Dentry (Biley Nine), 3h 51£ m, 1;- class C, under 1500 c.c, W. Thompson (Bugatti), 3h 6m, 1. C. K. Dickason, winner of class A, also wpn the Sealed Handicap. The time of the winner of the fastest time prize; which carried with it~ the.light car road,.championship of Australia, was 8.22 better than the time made by last year's winner, Mr. A. J. Terdich. What promised to be a great struggle between Terdich and Thompson for the winning honours, turned to bitter disappointment when Terdich was forced to retire through engine trouble when leading by one and a half minutes, after having circled about a thrid of the. course.. Some of their best laps were recorded at a speed exceeding 72 m.p.h. As there are 124 right angle corners to be negotiated in the course of this race, one can appreciate what a fine drive the winner put up in averaging such a high speed for Vie 200 miles. The severity of the contest can be judged from the fact that only nine cars completed the course. There were several nasty looking smashes, but fortunately none of the contestants was seriously injured.

Judging by the increased number of spectators at the race this year the event is growing very popular. . It is computed that over £200,000,000 is invested in petrol service stations in the United States, the total number of stations being 320,000.