SPEED RACING

Hokitika Guardian, 23 January 1929, Page 1

SPEED RACING

SEAGRAVE’S NEXT ATTEMPT. AN AMERICAN OPPONENT. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (United Service.) (Received this day at 9. a.m.) LONDON, January 2. -Major Seagrave will have a rival at Daytona Beach, Florida, when in March lie attempts a world speed record with his 450 horse-power car. According to private cables the famous “Skyrocket” Ralph De Palma. America’s former speed king, has por- . sunded J. A. Keeeh, the holder of the 207 miles an hour record, to let him drove liis 1500 horse-power ear Triplex. Seagrave is thirty years of age and Palma forty-two. Palma is trying to get the American Racing Board to lay out two courses so that he and Seagrave can make a race at 240 miles hourly or more. Daytona Beach is twenty miles long, with a level stretch of six miles, and as smooth as asphalt. It is five to six hundred yards wide at low water, providing room for two courses. A certain amount of American influence is backing up tin* idea. Keech’s ear unofficially timed lias done 233 miles per hour and since then has been reconstructed and three new Liberty aero engines have been installed. Its theoretical maximum speed is reported to be 250 miles per hour.