MOTOR CYCLE NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 194, 18 August 1931, Page 14

MOTOR CYCLE NOTES.

NEWS FROM ALF MATTSON.

SUCCESS ON ENGLISH TRACKS,

PASCOE RELIABILITY TRIAL.

Riding his Matt-Rudge at Lea Bridge on Saturday, June 20, Alf Mattson, Auckland and New Zealand dirt track champion, heat Bobby Blake,, one of Australia's crack men, and, the same day, won in a special match race against the King's Park team. In a later event, he was temporarily blinded by being struck in the eye by a bit of cinder and had to retire, but was able to ride again the following Wednesday, and did well.

After equalling the standing-start lap record in one of the preliminary rounds, and winning the semi-final, he was put out of the final of the handicap contest by the breaking of his back axle. The standing start record for the Lea Bridge track, now held jointly by Syd Jackson and Alf Mattson, is 93 2-ss. Squib. Bur. ton holds the flying mile and one lap records, which stand at 83 4-5s and 20 4-5e respectively.

Squib Burton was "going great guns," said Alf Mattson in his last letter, but Alf had been able to defeat Frank Pearee, the Australian, every time they had met. At Sheffield on June 25, Alf did best of his team, lying second to Squib Burton in number of points. He also won the silver bowl trophy against all comers, and put up the fastest time of the evening. Sheffield he considers the best track that he has yet ridden on in England.

To attend these three meetings, Alf Mattson had to travel about six hundred miles to and from Leicester, where he lives. "It is a good job there is no speed limit, and the roads are good," he writes. "As it is, one finds it hard to get enough sleep." When Alf wrote, his friend, Jack Garmson, was still in the land of the living, and it is easy to realise from his letter that he will very much mies the "cobber" who was killed shortly after the letter was written. "When riding at Lea Bridge, Jack and I usually arrived home at 2.30 a.m., but we had one bad trip the other week," says Alf. "The front tyre of the car blew out four times. After walking about 15 miles, Jack secured a new tube, but after about ten yards, that, too, blew out. By this time it was 10.30 a.m. on Sunday, and we had not eaten for 12 hours or slept for 48 hours. Eventually we arrived home at 2 p.m. on Sunday, little the worse." Chain breakages and punctures, such as come to the share of all ridere, have robbed Mattson of places in several important matches, but he has access, he says, to the finest tool and machine shop in England, a shop that made a lot oi parts tor the 11101, and turns out "gadgets" for Rolls-Royce and over a hundred other makes of cars. Individual Championship. Colin Watson turned' Uio tables on Vic Huxley, the Australian rider, in their return match for the title of individual champion at {Stamford Bridge. Uie iMiglishmau won by two straignt runs, registering speeds of 45.68 ni.p.h. and 44.77 m.p.h. in the first race, he took the lead from the start and increased it each lap, to win by a comfortable 80 yards. The second race was more closely contested, the men riding abreast for three-quarters of the journey, but then Watson cut through to the inside and opened his throttle. Huxley's machine would not respond to the demand for increased speed, and the Englishman went ahead to win by quarter of a lap. Watson won the toss for choice of track for the deciding meeting, and this was to take place at Wembley. News of the result has not yet reached New Zealand. Pascoe Cup Trial. The results of the Pascoe Cup Reliability Trial, held during the week-end under the auspices of the Auckland Sports Motor Cycle Club, will be announced at to-night's meeting of the club. Of the twenty-nine riders who started, only one was forced to retire, but several houre elapsed after the arrival of the first man home before the last of the .field straggled in. . Saturday's run to Cambridge was fairly easy, the only trap being the water-splash at Takanini, where the competitors had to leave the road and ride through a stream about 15 inches deep. Those who had water-proofed the vital parts of the engine and electrical equipment before the start had no trouble in the water, but some of them forfeited.inarke for helping the machines up the bank by putting down their feet. Most of the machines acquitted themselves well in the starting tests at Cambridge on Sunday morning. From there, the field was to return via Mataniata, Tβ Aroha, Paeroa, Ngatea, New Brighton, Miranda and Pokeno, but when the rain came, some of the riders abandoned the scheduled route and returned by the concrete road, arriving at Auckland about 3.30 p.m. Those who followed the original course did not check in until dark. '. German Grand Prix. British riders and British machines did well in the German Grand Prix meeting, winning first places in both the 500 c.c. .and"3so.ee. events. The meeting was held on the famous Nurburg Ring, a circuit of 17$ miles of first-class tarmacadam road, with not a mile of straight in the whole distance. Sixtyone machines started, of which 18 were in the 1000 c.c. claes. Results were: — 1000 c.c Class. —Rudalf Runtsch ■(N.S.U.), 1. 500 c.c. Class.—Stanley Woods (Norton); 1; Tim Hunt (Norton), 2; Graham Walker (Rudge), 3. 350 c.c. Class.—H. G. Tyrell-Smith (Rudge), 1; Dom (Imperia-Python), 2; Schneider (Velocette), 3. 250 c.c. Claes.—Toricelli (Puch), 1; E. A. Mellers (New Imperial), 2; G. E. Nott (Rudge), 3. Hard-Earned Win. In the race for 500 c.c. machines, the Britishers had it all their own way. For the first five laps, S. A. Crabtree, on an Excelsior-J.A.P. held the lead, later dropping back into fourth place behind Woods, Hunt and Walker. In this order they finished, Hunt and Walker almost dead-heating for first. Only two Britishers started in the 300 c.c. race, Tyrell-Smith on a Rudge, and Guthrie on a Norton. They were holding first and second places respectively when Guthrie wae forced to retire with engine trouble, leaving with a lead of 4J minutes over the rest of the field. Tyrell-Smith, averaging 65.3 m.p.h., increased his lead each lap, and won by five minutes. Although the race was not as closely contested as were the other events, the British riders again put up a good showing in the 250 c.c. class, taking secoodj-Jhißd and 7

TE PUKE MOTOR CYCLE CLUB

At a committee meeting of the Te Puke Motor Cycle Club held last week it was decided to hold a sports meeting on the Mount Beach on August 30. Many well-known riders from Tauranga, Whakatane, Rotorua and Waihi have expressed willingness to take part.

Chief among the events will be the club's championship cup and the handicap cup (at present held by W. McLeod, of Tauranga).

The club's team which competed at the recent Whakatane Motor Cycle Club's sports at Ohope Beach was congratulated upon securing second place in the inter-club cup championship, six miles.

Arrangements were made for a club run to Rotorua.