The Race
Leinster Leader, Saturday 4 July 1903, Last
Edition - Page 5.
MOTOR RACE.
GERMANY WINS.
INCIDENTS AND ACCIDENTS.
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN ILL-LUCK.
CARS WRECKED AND DISABLED.
The "Motor Fortnight," from the standpoint of local
popular interest, opened on Sunday last, when - in the pleasant
and sunny weather succeeding the rough, stormy and wintrish[sic]
experience of the preceding days - considerable numbers from
Naas, Athy, Newbridge, Kildare and other districts made pilgrimage
to Ballyshannon Cross Roads on car and cycle. The roads were
lively with motors and both wheel-men and car-drivers had to
exercise care and caution, more especially at the Grand Stand,
where a narrow passage of roadway, encroached upon by the supports
of the structure and pulverised for some depth on the surface
by the passage of traction engines, had to be negotiated, amidst
a crush of vehicles, automobile and otherwise. Though the course
and its approaches were the scene of such brisk traffic, no
accident occurred worth recording. The various private stands
abundantly in evidence were inspected with interest, their strength
and points of advantage being discussed. A staff of workmen
were busily engaged completing the Grand Stand, whose capacity
to bear its probable load was the subject of more than one sceptical
conjecture. However, the assurance that all defects had by this
time been remedied and the Stand certified as absolutely safe,
robbed these suppositions of the element of sensation that they
might have possessed. There was not much otherwise to engage
the visitors' attention. A series of very unpicturesque eye-sores
such as the stands really were - an odd tent - an atmosphere
flavoured with petrol from the passing and re-passing cars -
momentary glimpses of veiled heads, "goggled" eyes,
and their dust-ful owners - such was the complete picture and
impression that Sunday at Ballyshannon provided. There was little
to suggest the threshold of a great International event, and
nothing but the occasional fleeting glimpse of a foreign car
to give the expected cosmopolitan touch to the scene of a great
world-gathering.