EDITORIAL. SIR HENRY SEGRAVE., May 1929

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EDITORIAL.

SIR HENRY SEGRAVE.

WE wish to tender our heartiest congratulations to Sir Henry Segrave on his being knighted and on his marvellous performance in raising the world motor speed record to the incredible figure of 231.36 miles per hour.

Some idea of this marvellous performance can be gained when we consider that thirty-one years ago the speed record for the flying kilometre stood at the then, hair-raising speed of 39.24 miles per hour, which was attained by a Jeantaud electric car.

Our readers, we are sure, are proud of the fact that the wonder ,car with which this record was achieved was 100?.. British, and we wish to take this opportunity of congratulating the brilliant designer, Captain J. S. Irving, and all those who helped to build the car, on their wonderful work.

Captain Malcolm Campbell’s failure to break the world speed record did not come as a surprise to us, and there is no doubt that he would have done considerably better had the stream-lining of his car been more efficient. However, his wonderful new world’s records for the five miles and five kilometres, which now stand at 212 miles per hour and 211.03 miles per hour respectively, are likely to remain unbeaten for some time. Though these speeds fall short of the world’s speed record by a good margin, Captain Campbell has achieved what he set out to accomplish, namely, to beat the American record set up by Ray Keech, and had it not been for the great difficulties with which he was faced in preparing the course and which delayed him to such an appreciable extent, he would once again have been the holder of the world’s speed record if only for a few weeks. He has apparently discovered an excellent speedway in Verneuk Pan, but one cannot say whether it is better than Daytona until the same car in the same condition,

etc., is tried at both places. We congratulate Captain Campbell on his wonderful performance.

The Junior Car Club Double-twelve Hour Race takes place at Brooklands track on May 10th and 11th next, and has been very well supported, there being more entries for this event than any other event of the season. The fact that the cars entered must be genuinely in production, and that similar models can be bought in the ordinary way will no doubt do a great deal of good in improving the breed. This is certainly the type of race that we want, since there are at present few races in which the sporting amateur can enter his or her standard sports car and stand a reasonable chance of success.