PIONEER OF SPEED

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 55, 7 March 1927, Page 11

PIONEER OF SPEED

LATE PARRY THOMAS

TRIBUTES TO MEMORY

A GEEAT AND PLUCKY MAN

(United Press Association.—Copyright.) LONDON, sth March.

The official timekeeper of the speed maintained in the recent fatal motor race on the Pendine* Sands says that the late J. H. Parry Thomas did not achieve a record in his last attempt. When he was killed' he was doing 170 miles per.hour, but on the previous run he was only 'a fraction short of 175. This is not recognisable, because it was not maintained over both laps; "I had never seen such speed," said the mechanic Pullen, a devoted friend of Thomas, who jumped on top of the blazing car, turned off the petrol, and dragged the decapitated body free. "I have considered and examined everything, and believe a stone caused the driving chain to snap." "The car was as fit and proper as human brains and ingenuity could make it," said Leslie Callingham, engineer.

CORONER'S REMARKS.

The Coroner, in returning a verdict of accidental death, said that Thomas was a great man and a plucky man. "I am not one to condemn recordbreaking. The history of England was made by pioneers. Thomas's bravery would show that the manhood of the Empire was not dead in 1927."

Commenting on the terrific speed of tho present day, John Pricleau, a wellknown motorist, said: "Eecently I asked Parry Thomas why he did it. He replied, 'I cannot help it.' "I spoke to Segrave, who is journeying to America to attempt to establish^ a record of 200 miles an hour. He said:- ---' People say, Here's another madman out for honour and glory, trying to kill himself. What good will it do?,';"

Pricleau adds: "My reply is,- why do people climb Mount Everest, try to reach the North Pole, fly to Australia 1? To say it is useless is absurd. There must be pioneers to any progress. Speed is everything to transport."

GIANT CAR BURIED.

Parry Thomas's giant racing car was towed' from the beach at Peudinc and buried like a human body in a giant grave dug by villagers on the sand dunes. It was at first proposed to take the car out to sea, but it was thought tho car would only bo washed ashore. The villagers therefore dug a huge pit, to which the car was dragged by a tractor and heaved into it. . The spectators uncovered , their heads while sand was Bhovellod over it. It is expected a stone will be placed on the spot to mark the grave.