WORST ON RECORD

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 53, 11 September 1928, Page 11

WORST ON RECORD

SPECTATORS MOWN DOWN MONZA'S REPUTATION Australian Press Association. i MILAN, 10th September. Tho Monza disaster was tho worst in the history of motoring. It oecuvrcd before eighty thousand people. Materassi, one of the best-known Continental drivers, had changed his wheel in tho second lap, but a stupendous effort had enabled him to make up much of the lost ground, and ho had forced his way to fifth place, when he came into the straight near the grandstand, whero ho mado a desperate attempt to overtake Forosti, who was on a Bugatti, accelerating to 125 miles an hour. The near front wheol of Materassi's Talbot touched tho off-side of the Bugatti, causing Materassi's car to swervo violently to the right, then leap to the left, and finally to shoot like a giant projectile across a ten-foot ditch into spectators who were massed in front of the grandstand. Men, women, and children, many of whom had waited all night to secure a favoured place, were mown down like reeds, said an eye-witness, being hurled from tho car and dying on the track in a fow minutes. The crowd, panicstricken, broke the barriers and stampeded the track, despito tho motorists, who wore unaware of the accident and continued racing. The ambulance men wore totally unprepared for an accident of such magnitude. It was long beforo tho injured were placed in hospital. Leonardi was killed on the Monza track in 1925, and Sivocci and Pordino wero killed in 1927. Matorassi' won the Grand Prix do San Sebastian in 1927, covering 433 miles at an average speed of 80 miles an hour.