MOTOR-CYCLE RACING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22631, 24 July 1935, Page 7

MOTOR-CYCLE RACING

SENIOR T.T. CONTEST WON BY FOUR SECONDS TRIUMPH FOR ITALIAN MACHINE (From Ouk Own Correspondent.) (By Air Maii.) LONDON, June 29. An Italian motor cycle, the Guzzi, ridden by. the famous Irishman, Stanley Woods, won the Senior Motor Cycle Tourist Trophy race over the Manx mountain circuit. He was the victor by four seconds, with James Guthrie, on a Norton, second, and W. F. Rusk, on a Norton, third.

The winner covered the 264 miles in Bmin 25sec faster time than his previous

record set up in 1933, while his average speed of 84.68 m.p.h. was 2 m.p.h. faster than the old lap record! Guthrie broke the lap record three times during the race~a remarkable performance. But Woods put up a further new record of 85.60 m.p.h. in the fifth lap, and then on the final circuit, when every second was vital, he smashed every record by taking the Guzzi round at the astonishing speed of 86.53. Guthrie went to the front from the start, with a lap which would have ranked as a record but that the race starts a few yards over the finishing line. Rusk was next, and Woods only one second behind him. The second time round Woods rode second, but Guthrie was still gaining, and a record in the thij'd lap, ridden,in 26min 28sec, put him 52sec ahead of Woods. It was about this stage that Guthrie seemed to have the race comfortably in hand. WOODS’S GREAT EFFORT.

Then Woods began to “turn on the taps.” It was not that Guthrie slowed down; allowing for one stop at the pits, he was never on any lap more than 30sec above his own record, and he did four laps each within four seconds of that record. But Woods began to show that, the Guzzi could do better. In the fourth lap he won back 10 seconds from the lead, and the next time round, with a record ride in 26rnin 26sec, he knocked off 13 more. Guthrie then got an idea of what was happening, and in his sixth lap he made'.a great effort to pin Woods back. He, came within five seconds of Woods s