MOTOR RACING

Hokitika Guardian, 6 April 1929, Page 2

MOTOR RACING

AMONG TIIK MIRAGES. (By W. J. MATvIN, who recently ex, plored Veniouk Pan, in Soutli Al'rit'ii, where Captain Malcolm Campbell is shortly to make his attempt oil the world’s speed record.) If . Captain Malcolm Campbell succeeds in establishing a new speed record on Verneuk Pan, in South Africa, he will also have introduced to the motoring world the finest racing track in the British Empire. A few months ago Verneuk Pan was practically unknown except to a lew white men who farm precariously with sheep in its vicinity. It lies 400 miles

north of Capetown, 50 miles from the nearest white settlement, and nearly 100 miles from the railway. It is on the edge of a great barren tract ol country known as lliishmanlniid, sunjeet to long droughts and intense bent. ’When .1 visited Verneuk Pan a Jew weeks ago there had been no rain in the district for three years. The pan on which Major Campbell plans to race his famous Blue Bird is a gigantic depression surrounded by low-lying kopjes. Originally a shallow lake, never more than a few inches of j water in depth, it has now dried up and the bed of the lake has been baked ' hard by continuous sunshine. The pan is as flat as tlu* Wimbledon J tennis courts, and, except for an occasional bunch of scrub and a few loose black stones scattered over the surlaec. j should make the finest racing trade • in the world.

In company with Captain Campbell’s mechanic, who was sent in advance to South Africa, J. examined the surface of Verneuk Pan. The terrific heat of the sun has cracked the clay in every direction, so that it now presents the appearance of a gigantic jig-saw puzzle. And tliis jig-saw puzzle extends for 30 miles in length, with an average of three miles in width. These cracks by no means alter the dead flatness of the surface, but they may he dangerous to the thin tyres used on a racing car like Blue Bird. When water is sprinkled over the surface, however, the cracks automatical! v close. This will he done over a length of 10 miles, the bush and small stones will he cleared, and a perfect track prepared for speed record breaking. 1 raced a motor-car over Verneuk Pan even in its present condition and I rcai hod I lie maximum speed of the ear

91 miles an hour. At 75 miles an hoijr j I took my hands off the steering wheel and the car travelled smoothly as if I were doing 25 on a perfect macadamised road. Only at N 5 miles an hour was it necessary to grip the steering wheel again. Verneuk Pan, meaning the Cheating Pan, has a sinister reputation. All through the heat of the day it is ! smothered in mirages. More than one f pioneer who has attempted to cross | Verneuk Pan, found himself surroiindt ed by the cheating mirage, and wandered round and round until lie died of thirst. Even animals have lost themselves on Verneuk Pan. They tell you in the district that donkeys—the only sure form of transport in this part of the world will stubbornly refuse to cross the Pan. Sealed at the wheel of a ear raring

across Verneuk l/'an one appears to he tearing towards a lake. Vou expect at any moment to plunge into water. That is the mirage. Actually the nearest, water is -10 miles away. To watch a car racin'; across the Pan is equally puzzlin';. Vou see a black blob swimming in the air. At first it appears like a mammoth beetle in flight ; then it suggests an ostrich galloping madly; finally, the car itself materialises and tears past with dust streaming bohinu. Verneuk Pan is not very accessible and is unlikely to attract big crowds, fifty people suddenly descending upon the nearest white settlement would create a problem for water and 'food supplies. Captain Campbell will bp making his speed trials in a lonely, desolate country, hut if he succeeds in his object Verneuk Pan may soon be as famous as Daytona Beach.