NOVEL RACE.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17748, 27 April 1923, Page 7

NOVEL RACE.

MOTOR V. TRAIN. (raoM OUB ow* cobbksfohdzkt.) SYDNEY, April 19. Misfortune has overtaken the attempt of two Sydney motorists, Messrs J. Burton and J. Bradley, to race the express trains across" Australia fTOin Fremantle in the West, to Sydney in the East. The path of the great trans-Continental railway is at any time a hazardous one for a motorist to traverse, the tracks being of the roughest, water always scarce, and little variation in a weary waste o£ many hundreds of miles, save an occasional camp of blacks, who speculate in gibbering wonderment at anyone choosing the hardships and dangerß of such a mode of travel when the train would serve their purpose. In taking their high-powered vauxhall car over to Fremantle, preparatory to the race home, the motorists had a perilous experience between Port Augusta and the West Coast of South Australia, and found it necessary, after having undergone terrible hardships through lack of water, to return to Adelaide in order that repairs might be effected to their machine. They were more successful at their second attempt, and Fremantle was reached in safety. No time was lost in getting ready for the next trying task, and the motorists left Frep mantle on their long trek, a week last , Saturday, at 4 a.m. 0 , . „ . By train the journey oe cupies 109 hours 45 mmuteß, and aU 1 ThS 1 to Port Augusta, after which travel- " would have been comparatively

. easy. At Eucla they were a little be- > hind their scheduled time, which they i accounted for by having to traverse rough country with limestone outcrops, varied with roots and stumps. They ■ were, however, 14} hours ahead of the previous motor record time, and con* i siderably ahead of the train time. But when a little distance ont of Eucla they crashed badly, narrowly escaping with their lives, and the bold venture i had reluctantly to be abandoned.