Moore Comfortably Wins Speedway Match Races

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31543, 4 December 1967, Page 14

Moore Comfortably Wins Speedway Match Races

Although handicapped by having to switch to a strange machine when his normal machine broke down in a preliminary race, the former double world solo

speedway champion, R. Moore, still had too much in hand for the visiting English rider, H. Cole, in a special New Zealand versus England match race series at Temuleton on Saturday night.

Moore won two of the throe races against Cole, winner of the New Zealand championship last season, and in the other the pair could not be separated by the Judges and were awarded first place equal. In spite of his complete lack of practice, Moore showed that be was still the master of speedway racing as far as motorcycles were concerned. He was always in complete control of his machine, generously loaned to him by another Christchurch rider, A. Brown, and always seemed to have somethin# in reserve.

Cole, who will make his final appearance at Templeton next Saturday before leaving for Auckland, certainly did not disgrace himself. He was rarely more than a few Inches away from Moore and on several occasions held the lead. This was a remarkable achievement for Cole had been involved In a spectacular accident in an earlier handicap race when he had collided with A. Nesbitt oh the exit to the south bend. Cole and Nesbitt had been flung to the cinders and Cole’s machine had bounced and cartwheelejl for more than 30 yard? before coming to a stop. Compounding the accident, Brown rode Into Nesbitt’s fallen machine at high speed and joined the others on the track. Surprisingly enough nobody was injured. Cole’s machine suffered a bent handlebar, which was straightened in the pits. Nesbitt was unable to ride again. Before the crash. Cole was timed at lO.lsec for a lap, the fastest of the night by a considerable margin. However, in the match race series times were relatively slow, partly because of the nature of the two-man contest and partly because the track had begun to cut up by this stage. Moore's fastest race time was 82.9 sec, recorded in the first event. After the series, Moore faid that he would be racing again next Saturday and hoped to be on S. Burt’s machine, a motorcycle with which he is completely familiar. “I will see if I can get some good times out of it next week," he said. Wright Fastest The fastest race time of the night was established by R. Wright, who won the final

scratch race in 81.7 sec. He jvas in great form and only T. Black was able to offer any real opposition, but after a couple of laps he fell while trying desperately to remain in contact. Wright’s fastest lap time was 19.6 sec.

J. McKitterick and A. Perkins lowered the three-lap sidecar record to 71sec with a particularly fine effort. Although this was only their third meeting racing in the sidecar class, they looked anything but novices and proved that this was no isolated performance by winning the other two races on the programme, as well. J. Annan equalled the stock rod lap record of 21.1 sec on his way to victory in the opening four-lap handicap, but in the main eight lap race for South Island championship points he had to accept second place behind his brother, P. Annan, after a tremendous duel. W. Rusbridge took third place in this race to retain his over-all lead* one point ahead of P. Annan. E. Murray narrowly led home the former multiple South Island champion, R. T. Hall, in the six-lap Rothmans feature race, but he had to break the race record to do so. His winning time of 2min 3-ssec clipped .2sec off the existing record held by the outstanding Auckland driver, W. Jardin.

Unfortunately, mechanical troubles prevented Murray contesting the eight-lap South Island championship points race and lUII won this in . most convincing fashion in the good time of 2min 48sec. He took the chequered flag exactly half a lap ahead of the second man, N. Hawkins. In this race, Hall recorded several laps of 20sec, just a tenth of a second outside his lap record. S. Burt consolidated his lead in the South Island threequarter midget car championship with Another win in the eight-lap scratch race. Results were:— ' MOTOR-CYCLES Solo Handicaps (4 laps).— Novice race: R. Hall 1, M. Lambie 2, G. Jemmett 3. Time, 96.2. Second race: T. Black (20yd) 1, R. Wright (30yd) 2, W. Moulin (30yd) 3. Time, 82.5. Third race:

R. Wright (30yd) 1, W. Moulin (30yd) 2, T. Black (20yd) 3. Time, 83.7. Fourth race: E. Gluestein (go) 1, R. McKinlay, (70yd) 2, R. Clarkson (go) 3. Time, 92.0. Fifth race: I, Begbie (30yd) 1, M. Lambie (go) 2. Time none taken. Scratch races (4 laps).—First race: E. Oluestein 1, R. Clarkson 2. Time, 91:0. Second race: E. Gluestein 1, L Begbie 2,. M. Lambie 3 Time, 94:8, Third race, R. Wright 1, A. Brown 2, W. Moulin 3. Time, 81.7 International Match Races (4 laUs),—First heat: R. Moore (N.?.) I, H. Cole (ingland) 2. Time, 82.9. Second neat: Moore and Cole 1 (equal). Time, 84.0. Third heat: Moore 1, Cole 2. Time, 83.0. Sidecar combinations (3 laps). —Opening handicap: J. McKitterick (rider) and A Perkins (passenger), go, 1; W. Philp (rider) an< D. Wyllie (passen-, ger), 60yd; 2. Time, 71# (record). Second handicap: McKitterick and Perkins, go, 1; Philp and Wyllie, 20yd, 2. Time, 72.2. Third handicap: McKitterick and Perkins (go). 1. Time, 71.4. MIDGET CAR Three-quarter Midget Racing Cara. Opening handicap (6 laps): M. Palmer (go) 1, K. Stevens (30yd) iA. Godfrey (50yd) 3. Time, 92.5. Second handicap (6 laps): A. Godfrey (60yd) 1, N Chandler (60yd) 2, D. Jones (150 yd 3. Time, 2:14. South Island championship points race (8 laps): S. Burt 1, D. Jones 2, D. Harper 3. Time, 3:0.5. Speedcars.—Opening handicap (4 laps): £. Murray (110 yd) 1. G. Roxburgh (100 yd 2, N. Hawkins (90yd) 3. Time, 81.0 Second handicap (6 laps): E Murray 1, R. T. Hall 2, N. Hawkins 3. Time, 2:3.5 (record). South Island championship points race (8 laps): R. T. Hall 1, ,N. Hawkins 2. Time, 2:48. STOCK RODS Stock Rod events. —Fipst handicap (4 laps): J. Annan (100 yd) 1, A. Botherway (20yd) 2, P. Annan (120 yd 3. Time, 94.2. Second handicap (6 laps): P Annan (140 yd 1, J. Annan (120 yd) 2. C. Woods (30yd) 3. time, 2:24. South Island championship points race (8 laps): P. Annan 1, J. Annan 2, W. Rusbridge 3. Time, 2:57.2.