DIRT-TRACK RACING

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 290, 7 September 1928, Page 8

DIRT-TRACK RACING

AUCKLAND’S NEW DEPARTURE. Motor racing at Muriwai beach, near Auckland, is to be abandoned in favour of a dirt track being fixed up at Mangere in a much more accessible locality’. The “New Zealand Herald” says there will be few regrets at the decision to abandon Muriwai, as the sport had become tame and the beach was too in- ' accessible. If the beach was at the city’s back-door, remarks the “Herald,” the sport would have had a following for some years. Invercargill possesses a handy’ beach, with the result that attendances greatly exceed those at Muriwai. The Southland meetings are nevertheless no more exciting than those with which the Auckland motorist has been satiated, and they are bound to lose their following. Racing at Muriwai required much preparation and some expense, and during the last few years it has been left to a small band of enthusiasts, who regretted perhaps more than the public, the absence of a big field. It would be use; less to endeavour to liven up Muriwai by increasing the number of turns. This was tried in the 50-mile cup events without much effect. In 1922 there were three turns in the 50 miles. In 1923 and 1924, five turns were included, in 1925 and 1926, seven turns, 1927, nine turns, and at the meeting this year 11 turns were introduced. It will be possible to provide a circuit of 11 miles at Mangere, but the full distance may not be used. Circuits of six furlongs are popular in the United States, and for a flat dirt track even half-a-mile is not too short. If banking is undertaken a large lap distance is desirable. The outstanding requirement for a dirt track is width. The cars proceed in a series of skids and even a ’field of half-a-dozen requires considerable space. At a race held on the Greeuford trotting track,' England, in June, the starters were limited to three. The circuit was only half-a-mile, and although the winning cars averaged only 44 m.p.h., the spectacle proved quite thrilling. This was Britain’s first taste of racing with cars on dirt tracks. The American tracks are, of course, built particularly for ear racing, aud there are large fields.. Expensive racing cars are not used, and some of the most popular meetings held in America have been conducted with cheap four-cylin-der cars tuned up and fitted with more or less amateur bodies. There is an earth track of seven furlongs near Melbourne which has two straight sections and two banked curves. On this track an ultra-light car recently won a 50mile race at an average speed of 65 m.p.h. If such a speed can be attained on Auckland’s track, thrilling racing is assured, but in dirt track events the race is to the skilful rather than to the swift, and 90 m.p.h. cars are not an essential. EUROPE’S ROADS “MERE TRAILS” SAYS AN AMERICAN. ! A few years ago American car manufacturers to meet their home conditions were obliged to design their Cars to travel over the roughest roads, and any sort of track at all. The fact that European cars did not sell in America was then attributed to their unsuitability for such rough going. The complete change which has taken place since, say, 1913, is brought home very forcibly by a, paper presented to the Society of Automotive Engineers at their great convention at Quebec last week on the subject of “European Roads and American Cars.” Briefly, this constitutes the report of an American engineer who went to Europe to make, a special study of the suspension problems which the American car maker must tackle when selling his products in Continental Europe to-day. This investigator excludes Great Britain and Switzerland from his report, but, apart from these favvoured countries, he remarks“ One can say without exaggeration that they (Continental roads) look like mere trails in comparison with the familiar hard-surfaced roads of America.” The roads of the British Isles and Switzerland, he goes on to say,'“compare more than favourably with those of America.” Comments the London “Motor, with evident satisfaction : “In consequence of these facts it appears that the American car nowadays, designed mainly for travelling on hard concrete highways, is not found wholly suitable for the rough roads of the Continent, both in respect of insufficient damping for the bouncing produced and undue spring flexibility, which allows the axles to strike the frame when a rough section is taken at speed.” DUN’T ASK. If you should ask me if I’d rather have A man to clean my car and polish it, Aud keep the tires up to thirty-live, And all its greasy in’ards sound and fit (Instead, of course, of doing it myself And learning what it is that makes it go) ; And if you ask me if I’d rather own A limousine than a sedan, and know That when I pushed a button James would come To the front door, and I with lordly air Would sit me on the mauve velour at ease And tell my man to drive me anywhere ; Of if you ask me if I’d like a Rolls, All over nickel, w’ith a mile of hood, Instead of the nice little bus I’ve got. The answer is, my worthy friend—l would I —Walter Prichard Eaton in the “American Motorist.”