FLYING MILE

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 34, 3 May 1927, Page 11

FLYING MILE

SPEED RECORDS BROKEN OVER 110 MILES AN HOUR The flying mile championships conducted by the Pioneer Sports Club at Christchurch a week ago were productive of the highest motor-cycle speeds achieved in New Zealand. Certainly a speed of over 110 miles an hour has not been attained at North Beach before. Two machines, Harley-David-sons, did a speed of over 100 miles an hour. L. C. Monkman, a member of the Pioneer Club, on a 7-9 Harley, lowered the previous beach record of 99 miles an hour by breaking into the hundreds in 35 4-ssec, but 11. Maugham, the North Island crack, doing 32 3-ssec, travelled at a rate of over 110 miles an hour. The electric timing apparatus had to be abandoned, and neither record will be officially recognised. While Harley-Davidsons put up these remarkable speeds in the heavy-weight class. E. Burmeister, on a Harley, won the 350 c.c. class, with G. Hockley, Harley, second. F. C. Riley, on a 35 A.J.S., won the up to 500 c.c. class in the good time of 42sec, with W. C. Thomas, another A.J.S. rider, second. F. R. Marsh, ona 35 Norton, won the up to 750c.c. class, in the even better time of 41sec. LONDON’S PILLION GIRL MAY HAVE TO RIDE ASTRIDE England is not suffering from the prohibition of pillion riding, or a suggestion to prohibit, but reforms WQre suggested at a big traffic conference in London. Mr. Ben Smith, M.P., said: “When you think that in 20 years we get rid by accidental death of upwards of a million people you will get some idea of the problem.” Colonel Wilfrid Ashley, Minister of Transport, who presided at the first session, paid a tribute to the skill of bus drivers and the courtesy of the police. “If I were a policeman regulating the traffic there would be many more people brought before the magistrates than at present,” he said.

txplaining the new Road Traffic Bill, Mr. H. Piggott, of the Roads Department, said the Minister would have power to make regulations compelling women pillion riders to sit astride on some proper sort of saddle with something to hold on to, so as to secure the maximum of safety.* Mr. Mervyn O’Gorman (R.A.C.) opposed compulsory examination of drivers. They could not, he argued, examine a man for “road sense.” When the conference expressed the view that more police officers should be placed on traffic duty, Sir Henry Maybury said that, in view of the committee, an Englishman was not going to stand for coercion by the police in making him cross the road at a specified point. SPEED RECORDS Prior to Major Segrave attaining over 200 miles an hour recently, a record not yet official, the world’s speed records were:

Miles AV. Driver and Car 1 174.2 M. Campbell, Sunbeam 5 140.6 IC. A. Eldridgre, Miller 10 131.7 K. A. Eldridge, Miller 50 1 20.6 lire ton. Pan hard 100 123.0 Ortmans, Panhard 500 110.0 P. Thomas, Leyland 1000 108,3 P. Thomas, Renault 2000 307.4 p. Thomas, Renault 3000 72.0 Miss Cordery, Invipta 15,000 65.7 Miss Cordery, Invicta