MOTOR CYCLE NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 81, 7 April 1931, Page 15

MOTOR CYCLE NOTES.

LOCAL T.T. SCHEME.

EXAMPLE FROM AUSTRALIA.

ISLE OF MAN PROSPECTS,

Although little has been heard of it lately, the proposal to hold a local Tourist Trophy race is not dead. Some very live enthusiasts are behind the scheme, and it is unofficially reported that they have the Waiheke Road Board's permission to hold the contest on the island, all the roads to be closed for the purpose. The Auto Cycle Union has given provisional approbation to the scheme, but the route of the proposed race is to be inspected by representatives of the union. Financial support may also be forthcoming, but that depends on many things. In the meantime, the official recognition by the controlling body is counted upon by the promotors of the scheme.

If the race is held, it is sure to attract the attention of all the racing enthusiasts in New Zealand, for it is expected that the A.C.U. will take into consideration the performances of riders in tne local T.T. if representatives are to be chosen to uphold the reputation of the Dominion at the Isle of Man meeting next year. Australian Road Race. During the Easter week-end, an Australian Tourist Trophy race was held at Bathuret, N.S.W. Recognising the value of such a meeting as a '"boost" for the district, the local authority closed the roads on which the race was to be run,| and lent every possible assistance to the motor cyclists, even ■ to the extent of grading and surfacing the roads for them. Last year the meeting was held at Goulburn, but apparently the powers that rule Bathurst have outbid Goulburn for the honour (and profit) of having the meeting staged in their precincts. Part of the gate money goes to the local authority, so the municipal purse (as well as the tills of the shopkeepers) is the fuller. Isle of Man Team. New Zealand's team for the Isle of Man T.T. should do well. Ben Bray has earned the respect of all those who undertake the management of motor cycle meetings for his steadiness and reliability. Cinder track managers like him because they can always depend on him, and they have never known him to let the public down; nc "temperament" about him. Both the Norton and the Douglas factories have offered him mounts for the Isle of Man contest.

Since lie rode on the grass in Auckland some three years ago, H. Tolley, the other New Zealand representative, has not heen seen here, but in the south he is very popular. He is probably best on the grass, but on the cinder track at Palmerston North he shown some very clever riding. One of the cleverest and shrewdest of the visiting Australian riders declared recently that Tolley had all the makings of a first-class cinder track man. He also has been offered a first-class machine for the Isle of Man event. The Auckland Sports Cycle Club holds its usual monthly meeting to-night. On any road leading out of Auckland, any day since Thursday, about one motor cycle a minute would be a conservative count of the number of twowheelers that passed; and a good number carried double loads. A motor cyclist remarked the other day that his fiancee, who could not ride a machine "to save her life," could sit a pillion seat better than he could, and when they put it to the test, the man in the saddle found her far more easily to ride with than the man. It is, of course, merely another example of female "intuition."