LAND SPEED ATTEMPT

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 157, 31 December 1931, Page 8

LAND SPEED ATTEMPT

DENIAL OF FRICTION

GAR GOING TO THE BEACH

With. Mr. Norman Smith's car ready for his attempt on the land speed record at-Ninety-Mile Beach, states the Auckland "Star," a report has been published in Sydney that official permission for the trial had been withheld, that there has been friction in Mr. Smith's party, and that another designer has been approached, and that Mr. Don. Harkness may not go to the beach. This has been officially denied by Mr. Smith and his manager, Mr. J. H. Mostyn. "There has been no friction and no misunderstanding between myself, Mostyn, the Auckland Automobile Association, and the Auckland Automobile Racing Club," said Mr. Smith. "The car is under my solo control, and will definitely be shipped to Awanui on Saturday. I will have the car run in the condition I want it, and nobody will interfere. The A.A.A. have helped me in every way possible, and they agree with all my views about the car. No outside designer is to be brought into the picture." An absolute denial that permission to hold the race had been withheld was also given by Mr. Mostyn. "The car will be shipped on Saturday, and we will leave either on Saturday or Sunday," he said. "The trials will be held, as arranged, early in the New Year." Both Mr. A. Grayson, president of the A.A.A., and Mr. H. J. Butcher, chairman of the Auckland Automobile Bacing Club, deny that there has been | any friction between, those bodies and Mr. Smith's party. They endorse Mr. Smith's statement entirely. Mr. Harkness, designer and builder of the ear, said ho was not prepared to mako a statement of any kind at the moment.