BRITAIN'S RACE TRACKS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21934, 18 October 1934, Page 19

BRITAIN'S RACE TRACKS

PENOINE SANDS, WALES AUCKLANDER'S IMPRESSIONS A description of tho motor racing beach at Pendine Sands, South Wales, is given in the following special message to tho Hhrald by an Aucklander now in England, Mr. H. J. Butcher. It is the third of a series. Pendine Sands, South Wales, are about 220 miles due west of London and about 18 miles from that old-world town of Carmarthen. There, is an excellent road right down to tho beach, with a good concrete incline built down to the sand. Motor-coaches bring numbers of people to the sands during tho holiday period, and numbers of car ojvners take their cars down to try them out for speed, but, tho length being restricted, thero is not the danger of running them to a standstill, as is done on our long beaches. The length that can be used for driving is six and a-half miles, and it is not unlike Muriwai. It has only one entrance for cars, and where at Muriwai wo have a creek to cross, Pendine has a soft patch about the same distance along, but whereas at Muriwai you can see the creek, at Pendine a stranger does not know the soft patch is there until he is in it. I had a guide in my car, and as we went along the beach he told me to keep down about 200 yds., but suddenly I realised that I was not down far enough, and I had to get into bottom gear as quickly as I could to save myself from getting bogged. The tide goes out the extraordinary distance of three-quarters of a mile. When trials used to be carried out on the beach they were generally run about 400 yds. below high water mark. It is impossible to drive very much below that distance owing to the wetness of the 6and. The beach was not in a very good condition when I was there in the middle of August, and my guide said that it was always the same when someone came specially to look at it, and when nobody was there it was always in a good condition. I told him that I could sympathise with him, as wo had that experience once on the NinetyMile Beach.