1929 Ulster TT Race Programme

corner in Comber,
leads through the
village street and
then bends sharply
right again at Com-
ber Station . From
here to Dundonald it
winds and undulates
very much like a plea-
sant Sussex highway,
but peaceful as it
may look, with its
sheltering trees and
Dundonald Hairpin
bordering pastures and corn fields, it will witness some of the most
thrilling driving in the race . There is no opportunity here for the
big cars to smash past their slower rivals at will ; they must wait
their chance, dogging a car round a bend, accelerating past it in the
short straight stretches, braking hard for the next bend, and so
on for four hard slogging miles, with a final "scrap" down the
Dundonald straight to be first round the Dundonald Hairpin,
which brings the cars on to the top leg again.
IMPROVEMENTS.
Following the experience gained from last year's race, the
authorities in Northern Ireland have carried out a large number
of improvements to the course, the most important of which is the
treatment of the entire surface with a non-skid preparation in
order to obviate, so far as may be reasonably possible, the risk of
accident should the roads be wet during the practising periods or
the race itself . The second most important improvement is the
replacement on the fast Newtownards-Comber straight of the old
grips and drains by surface level gratings . This particular stretch
of road being almost level, is very difficult to keep clear of water,
and there are approximately fifty drains running from it . These
constituted somewhat dangerous obstacles if a car was forced the
slightest distance over to the off-side, and their elimination by
the authorities will now render this section of the course safe at
any speed at which the competitors care to travel.
Other work includes the removal of a number of bad bumps
which were noted during last year's race, and the widening of a
corner at Ballyrussell . Actually this latter is the only alteration
to the course itself . Before the work was undertaken it was very
carefully reviewed by the R .A.C. and the Irish authorities ; the
object of the R.A .C. being to preserve the natural characteristics
of the course, rather than to convert it into a "track," and to
render it safer rather than faster. The Tourist Trophy Race is
first and last a road event, and one of the first considerations
therefore in connection with it is to see that the course over which
it is run contains the true elements of a genuine road circuit.
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