TOURIST TROPHY

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 49, 26 August 1930, Page 5

TOURIST TROPHY

A DIFFICULT RACE

COLEMAN'S EXPERIENCE

(By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post.") AUCKLAND, 25th August,

Percy Cpleman, who represented NewZealand officially at the Tourist Trophy motor-cycle races in the Isle of Man in June last, returned to Auckland by the Aoraugi from Sydney to-day. Coleman is holder of the world's heavyweight championship on grass, and although he' has not ' done a great amount of racing on the open road, he has come back full of admiration for the skill of. the riders he met abroad.

The luck was not altogether with the New Zealand rider; He was unfortunate in his races, A crash on a treacherous bend put him out of the junior race, and in the senior event his machine failed.

So many factors entered into the competition that at Home it was considered a good performance if a competitor was successful in his third year in the race. A newcomer has never yet passed the post first. The course was so tortuous and tricky that it required a tremendous amount of practice to obtain even a general knowledge of its and the speeds at which they could be successfully surmounted —much more time than Coleman had before the races..

On account of the short notice which New Zealand received of the opportunity to send a representative there was difficulty in securing suitable machines. The one supplied to Coleman for the junior race was an ordinary standard model, and nothing groat was expected of it. Manufacturers who competed seriously in the races spent thousands of pounds in developing machines for the purpose. The test was as severe on the machine as it was on the rider, and in England it was held to be an excellent performance if the 264 miles course was completed, regardless of whether the coveted prize was won or not.

"Unfortunately in the junior race I crashed on Mouat Snaefell at the 33 miles post-during tho first lap through trying to take a corner too fast,'' Coleman said. It was an innocentlooking bend, but of late years it had brought more riders to grief than any other corner on the. 38-miles circuit. Tor that reason the mile post there was painted red. The ' bend looked easy, but he suddenly realised that he was off the road and over the side ot the mountain. He received a slight sprain and a cut on his right hand, and would have continued, but bis machine was a hopeless wreck. _ The senior race took place four clays later, and Coleman rode another machine, one which was specially built for him. It waa not up to the standard of the special machines which tne company had entered for its trade riders, Coleman said. He d t d his best to get one of the specials, but the company would not supply it. In tact, the conditions under which he obtained the machine ho rode provided that it had to be purchased, and he was grateful to the New Zealand company who bought it. " .. ~, Coleman, accompanied by his wife, will leave Auckland to-day to spend a few days at Morrinsville before returning to business at Wanganui. He said his plans for the future were indefinite, but it was probable that he would be_ seen on the tracks in the Dominion again.