AUTO RACING FEVER.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume III, Issue 11, 24 December 1912, Page 5

AUTO RACING FEVER.

IN THE REPAIR PIT. America is badly smitten by the automobile racing fever at present, and the sport has attained something of the importance, and popularity which characterised cycle racing in the "boom ’ days. The races take' place in country roads, a district being selected where the roads are so arranged as to form an eight or ten-mile loop. The roads comprising the loop are, of course, barred from traffic during the progress of a race, a precaution very necessary in view of the fact that speeds of eighty or ninety miles ar 'lour are frequently registered. At some suitable part of the road circuit the repair pit is situated, and during the progress of a big race the repair nit is probably the busiest nlace on the v.-hole busy continent. The big racing cars come to the pit for gasoline, for oil. for water, and for tyre changes. Almost as much depends upon the celerity with which those in the pit perform their .ask .as upon the skill and daring of he drivers themselves. There.is no time to be careful. Gasoline is absolutely hurled into the tanks by ihc bucketful, splashing over evert’ part >f the car. Neither is there any lime to take care of tyres. The cardraw up at the pit with rear-brakes ard on, and the back wheels locked and sliding along the ground. The ’Xtra wear and tear matters very ittle. as the rear tv res seldom last more than a few laps at top speed. The right rear tyre undergoes tremendous strains and phenomena. friction at every corner, and nine times out of ten the right rear tyre is the cause of a stoppage at the pits. The tyres burn anti melt with fiic::on. and are ripped, into shreds or he road. Replacing a tyre, how ?vor. is inertly a matter of seconds, "hirty seconds is good time, l-orly-fh’e seconds is slow. Another prolific murce o’’ ticubic F a failure in engine lubrication. Cars come to the pits' vitii < ngnics smoking like bontni s. :d the delay in such cases may b< .engthv. No car gets through a •ace of any length without -topping t ihe pits, and the nice may bt ion or lost through the smartness or ■>e bungling of the men who keep ; gil there.