CAR-RACING IN THE I.O.M. NEXT MONTH

CA.R.-RACINCr IN THE I.O.M. PUBIC T MONTH

Those who can should make a point of attending the R.A.C. International Car Race in the Isle of Man on June 3rd, for this is one of the most important of our 1,i-litre fixtures.

The Isle of Man is an extremely important centre of British road-racing, in marked contrast to the apathy that exists in official circles in respect of racing over closed public roads in England and Wales and Scotland.

In 1904 the Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland staged the eliminating trials for the Gordon Bennett Race in the when S. F. Edge (Napier) and Girling and Jarrott (Wolseleys) were finally selected as the British team.

In 1905 the Isle of Man was again the scene Of the Great Britain eliminating trials, when Earp’s 80 h.p. Napier and Bianchi’s Wolseley alone completed the course, with C. S. Rolls a lap behind on another Wolseley which had covered the timed section of 75 m.p.h. over the halfmile, where Macdonald’s Napier recorded 88.2 m.p.h. Later in 1905 the first T.T. race was held in the Island, resulting in a victory for J. S. Napier’s two-cylinder double-pistoned Arrol-Johnston at 33.9 m.p.h. Subsequent T.T. pre-war contests were rim in the I.O.M., likewise the highly exciting racing-car T.T. event of 1922 when Sunbeam, Vauxhall, and Bentley battled together st, manfully.

Of recent years the R.A.C. has returned to the Island, with its Mannin Beg and Mannin Moar races, held over a ” roundthe-houses ” course from 1933 to 1.935, and replaced last year by a 1i-litre scratch race over a four-mile course, won by R. J. B. Seaman’s Delage at 69.76 m.p.h.

This race will be repeated on June 3rd, and will present an unrivalled spectacle of the pick of Europe’s 11-litre racing-cars in contest over a genuine and difficult road course. E-.R.A., Maserati, M.G. and Delage should be seen in fierce combat. The distance of the race, as seems to be almost universal for British racing-car contests of International character, is approximately 200 miles, the course having to be lapped fifty times and the circuit measuring 200 yards short of four miles in length.

There is practically no restriction on competing cars apart from the capacity limit of 1 …litres, and any sort of fuel is permissible. The winner receives the Wakefield Cup and „4:400, the second finisher 300, the third “,20(), and so on, down to the tenth finisher, who gets £30— which i8 extremely generous prize money.

Cars Nv ill be flagged in ten minutes after the winner has finished, the remaining places thereafter being decided on the number of laps completed, it being stipulated that at least twenty-five laps be completed by all award winners.

The start is at 2 p.m., and the race is expected to last three and a half hours. Practising takes place on Tuesday and Wednesday, June 1st and 2nd, at the traditionally early hours of 5-7 a.m. The course startsfrom the T.T. grandstand, turns left at St. Ninian’s Corner, runs down Ballaquayle Road and Broadway to the sea front at the Villa Marina and here turns left along the Promenade and King Edward’s Road to Royal Avenue. It then turns lefts again, follows an acute S-bend up a short, steepascent, bears left into Onchan Village, and then follows Governor’s Road back to the grand

stand. This course is expected to be faster than last year’s, which Seaman’s Delage lapped at 72 m.p.h. and it presents greater variety. It is lapped in an anticlockwise direction.

Last year eighteen cars started and nine finished the course. The race is run on a Thursday and visitors who cannot get over to the Isle of Man by air can use the morning boat service and return again the same evening. Tftey are assured of instructive Sport. Advance entries; included ” B. Bira ” (Delage), A. C. Dobson, Ian Connell and R. E. Tongue (E.R.A.$), Du Puy and de Graffenried (Maseratis) and Jucker (Alta). The works E.R.A.s and Dixon’s Riley will almost certainly run, and the Conan-Doyle’s twelvecylinder Delage may be entered.