MOTOR-CYCLE RACE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20903, 19 June 1931, Page 11

MOTOR-CYCLE RACE.

LIGHT-WEIGHT TROPHY.

\ HIGH SPEED ATTAINED.

WALKER WINS IN ISLE OF MAN.

By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyriffht

(Roceived Juno 18. 8.15 p.m.) LONDON. June 17

The light-weight Tourist Trophy motorcycle race in the Isle of Man was won bv G. Walker, with an average speed of 68.98 miles an hour. There were 42 starters.

Tyrell Smith 'finished second and Mellors third. The forejgn machines seemed outclassed. The Italian crack rider Ghersi came in sixth, hut he was riding a British cycle. The little engines, with their piston diameter no bigger than a wine-glass, stood the race with astonishing efficiency.

The light-weight Tourist Trophy race, the second of the three T.T. events held each year in the Isle of Man, is run over the same course as the others. The total distance is 264 mi'es 300 yards, and involves seven laps of one of the most difficult road courses in the world. The lightweight race is limited to machines of 250 c.c. engine capacity, and this year attracted 42 entries.

Last year the race was won by J. R. Guthrie on a 248 c.c. A.J.S. machine at 64.71 miles an hour, the record being held by W. Handley on a 246 c.c. Rex-Acme at 66.86 miles an hour. Walker's performance in averaging 68.98 miles an hour for the whole distance is phenomenal, as the race is over the same course as last year, and the improvements to the course were not expected to make any great difference in the speeds of the competitors. Graham Walker, who won this year's race, is a veteran T.T. rider, and has a long list 6f victories to his credit. He finished second in last' year's senior event, and was third in the junior. He won the 500 c.c. class in the German Grand Prix last year, was first and made the record lap in the 1929 Ulster Grand Prix, won the Leinster "100" in 1930 and 1929 was first in the 1928 Dutch T.T. and second in the same race in the previous Vear. He is one of the three permanent Rudge riders, the others being W. L. Handley and E Nott, who finished third in this year's junior. Special machines were built by _ the Rudge-Whitworth factory for the lightweight race this year. They were almost identical in design with the models which won the first three places in the junior last year. Their marvellous speed is attributed chiefly to the ingenious arrangement of the four the machines being known as the "radial valve" model. The two New Zealand- representatives, Ben Brav and H. Tolley, did not take part in the light-weight. They rode in the junior, and will also apoear in the senior, which is to lie run to-day.