Intro and Menu | March Articles
THE GREAT MOTOR RACE.
DESCRIPTION OF THE COURSE.
NAAS AND NEWBRIDGE DISCARDED.
The Dublin correspondent of the “London Times” writes:-
“Ireland owes, or will owe, one of the most sporting events in her
very sporting history and a tide of wealth which may be safely
estimated in thousands of pounds, to the energy of Mr. Claude
Johnston, [Elsewhere
Claude Johnson] secretary
of the British and Irish Automobile Club. It was, of course,
Mr. S. F. Edge’s victory in last year’s Gordon-Bennett Cup
which made it possible that this year’s race should be held in the
United Kingdom at all: but Mr. Edge’s victory was only the beginning
of a very hard battle against circumstances. There was, first,
the task of converting the staid public opinion of these countries into
acceptance of the notion of travel at more than the highest railway speeds
on the roads of the British taxpayer. This conversation[sic] is now practically
complete.” Referring
to the change of course, the article continues:- “Various considerations – narrowness
of roads, badness of the surface, and other difficulties – suggested
these changes, the net result of which is to reduce the length
of the course from 131 miles to 102½ miles. It is necessary to
explain that the 13 miles of road between Athy and the junction
below Old Kilcullen are counted twice in this estimate. The race will
start, in all probability, from a point on this road, and, will execute
a figure of 8 thus – Ballitore,
Castledermot, Carlow, Athy, Kilcullen, The Curragh, Kildare,
Monasterevan, Maryborough, Stradbally, Ballylinan, Athy, and
so back to the starting place. This stretch of 13 miles which will be
covered six times by each competing car, is beautifully straight and smooth,
and will admit of the highest speeds. The race was to have been three
times round the original course (393 miles). It will be three-and-a-half
times (about 360 miles) round the final course, and is expected to occupy
between seven and eight hours. The start will be made at 7 o’clock
a.m. The commission are unanimous in describing
THE COURSE AS EXCELLENT
and believe that the foreign competitors will be agreeably
surprised by it. The country in which the course is laid is smooth and
undulating. There are few steep hills, but many long and gentle slopes
admirably suited for fast racing. The roads, if not as straight as the
French roads, are remarkably straight for Ireland: and there are at
least three such perfect stretches of several miles as could hardly
be bettered in the United Kingdom. Mr. Edge expresses the opinion that,
as regards both straightness and surface, the course compares favourably
with that on which he won the cup last year and with the course on which
Mr. Jarrott, who will also be a competitor this year, won the Ardennes
race.
The course thus favoured by nature will be, in Caesar’s phrase,
both natura et artemunitus before the day of the race. The business
of the special commission on Wednesday and Thursday was not only to
settle the course, but to fix “controls,” to arrange for
necessary repairs and alterations, and to choose spots for the red flags
that will mean “stop” and the green flags that will mean “go
slowly.” For these purposes, when we started from Kildare at 8
o’clock on a frosty morning, we took with us Mr. Glover, the County
Surveyor of Kildare: and when the limit of his baliwick was reached
at Monasterevan, Mr. White, his colleague of the Queen’s County,
joined the party. These gentlemen, and indeed, everybody in the two
counties down to the humblest peasant, are co-operating in the preparations
with delightful zeal and enthusiasm. We race from Kildare over to the
Curragh - giving a mild shock en route to the horses and a battery of
field artillery – then back again to Maryborough and so, round
the larger segment of the course, to Kildare. The second day was devoted
to the Carlow half of the figure 8. The course is everywhere practicable,
and the parts which are rather bad are not nearly so numerous as those
which are very good. The best sections include a magnificent stretch
of 12 miles between Monasterevan and Maryborough, the road, straight
as a ruler for six miles, between Maryborough and Stradbally, and several
perfect stretches on the Carlow-Kilcullen road. The second half of the
road between Stradbally and Ballylinan is not good: and the Ballylinan-Athy
road, though broad and straight, is very rough from the large coal traffic
which passes that way from the mines at Castlecomer to Athy. I may mention
that we made our journey in a steady downpour of rain. In summer weather
the surfaces which we found bad will be better, and those found good
will be excellent.
The commission marked several permanently dangerous spots with
flags, and many others more amenable to treatment will be eliminated
before the race by the County Surveyors. The repairs which
these gentlemen have undertaken to make are, principally,
STEAM ROLLING THE ROADS
to a perfect surface, rounding off bad corners, and levelling
up the road on each side of the little bumpy culverts which
are so common in Irish country districts. These culverts present
no dangers to slow touring cars, but they provide racing cars
moving at the rate of forty yards a second with a “jump-off” for
leaps of 30 or 40 feet through the air. The cost of all these
repairs which will be considerable, will be largely met by
the Automobile Club: but it is hoped that the County Councils
and other public bodies in Ireland will make contributions. “Controls” – that
is to say, spaces through which the cars will have to proceed
slowly under supervision of racing officials – have been arranged
at Castledermot, Carlow, Athy and Kildare – five in all, since
the “control” at
Athy will come into force twice each round of the course. It
was decided on Wednesday to avoid the necessity of a “control” at
Maryborough by taking in a little cross-road, which brings
the course quite away[sic] from the town. An important matter
which the commission left still undecided after two days careful
consideration was the location of the point for the start and
finish of the race. But it will probably be selected somewhere
in the neighbourhood of Tippeenan [sic - Presumably Tippereenan
in the parish of Fontstown]. The reasons in favour of this
position are that, as I have explained, the cars will pass
six times over this road, and that a beautiful vista of straight
road will enable their flight to be watched continuously for
nearly five miles. At the place chosen for the start and finish
the club will erect a stand for members and an enclosure for
the paying public. As for myself, if I am so fortunate as to be on the
ground, I shall take my stand on the moat[sic] of Ardskull [sic
- Moat of Ardscull; Motte of Ardscull], a splendidly preserved
Danish fort about four miles north of Athy on the same road,
which commands on one side a stretch of two and on the other a stretch
of four miles. The course is within an hour’s
railway journey from Dublin. Intending visitors by that route
will do well to remember that on the day of the race neither
love nor money will buy a passage across the track, and that
the only way to the inside of the course (from which any point
on it may be reached) will be through the “control” at
Kildare.
Mr. Johnston and his assistants have still to grapple with
the big problem of keeping the public off the course on the
day of the race. It is made bigger by the fact that the Irish peasant
adds to his traditional recklessness complete ignorance of
THE TERRIBLE SPEED
of racing motor cars. The Races Committee of the Automobile
Club in the current issue of its official organ that the road
should be divided into two sections of a quarter of a mile, each in
charge of two members of the County Councils and two members of the
club. This formidable army of 1,400 persons may possibly be increased
by levies of the military and police, who would be extremely glad to
give their aid, and by drafts on the local peasantry. Nobody has a more
severe or uncompromising sense of responsibility than the Irish peasant “drest
in a little brief authority,” especially if he be given something
to display - a green badge or ribbon by preference. It is very certain
that the Gordon-Bennett Cup race of 1903 will more than repay the trouble
of a visit to Ireland, even if the visitor abstain from the other and
varied delights which the Automobile Club has arranged for the public
during its “Irish fortnight.” England, France, Germany,
and America, will be represented each by its three, best men and its
three best cars, and the course is one on which the records of all previous
races may quite possibly be lowered. Mr. Edge, who now holds the cup,
and Mr. Jarrott, whose average in the Ardennes race was 55 miles an
hour, have been chosen definitely as two of the British competitors.”