Transatlantic Dashes

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31984, 10 May 1969, Page 13

Transatlantic Dashes

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) NEW YORK, May 9. Mr Ben Garcia, aged 32, a transport contractor, sprinted out of the lift at the top of the Empire State Building last night in his third attempt to win a prize in the £60,000 transatlantic air race.

Mr Garcia, whose private plane crash-landed on a Pennsylvania chicken farm on Tuesday, yesterday dashed from New York to London and back in his first attempt to win the “by, commercial airline” prize.

“Hello, baby,” he yelled to his wife as he clocked in at the race check-point, unshaven, but twirling a cane and wearing a grey top hat and tails. “I can’t .believe it’s my husband—J never saw him behave like this,” his astonished wife said.

Mr Garcia immediately consulted some friends about raising another SUS42O for a round-trip ticket back to London tonight He wants to make as many round trips' as possible before the race ends on Sunday, but he is hopelessly out of the running for any of the fastest-time prizes. Associated Press reports that the New Zealander, Mr

Neil Stevens, of Vancouver, arrived in New Brunswick, Canada, from New York last night and began clearing the way for a take-off on Friday in tiie oldest plane entered in the race, a 1934 Tiger Moth. ' The plane is being shipped to New Brunswick from Idaho, and is expected to arrive tomorrow. . Mr Stevens said he understood that bis plane had suffered minor damage during transportation, but he did not expect it would be serious enough to cause any delay in his plans. An - experienced pilot, he hopes to fly via Labrador, Greenland, Iceland and Ireland.