COMMENT
Business Buzz
with Harry Pearson
Sand , celebrity and speed
The forgotten story of when Saltburn beach was the place where supercars raced and records were chased
The cover feature in this issue of Tees Business features Kiwi Bianca Robinson , speaking with affection about her Saltburn hometown . It reminds me about what I found while looking through some old photograph albums with my parents recently .
Alongside the snaps of my Aunty Mary standing outside the splendid window display of Gladders ’ grocery shop and my Aunty Nora in the doorway of Rogers ’ Gents Outfitters , I came across some other more surprising photos of Saltburn : sports cars and motorbikes speeding across the sands in the late 1930s . “ What ’ s going on here ?” I asked my dad . “ It ’ s the motor races on the beach ,” he replied . “ That ’ s Freddie Dixon from Stockton . He finished third at Le Mans in 1935 and won two Isle of Man TTs .”
The races on the beach were a regular thing , Dad explained . “ They even tried to break the land speed record on it before I was born .”
When the land speed record is mentioned , most people will picture streamlined cars hurtling across the shimmering surface of Utah ’ s Bonneville Flats , Lake Eyre , the Australian saltpan where Sir Donald Campbell set his last land speed mark , or perhaps the Black Rock Desert where Marske-raised Andy Green drove ThrustSSC to the current record of 763mph in 1997 .
Searing heat , dry ground and still air are ideal conditions for high speed . It is fair to say that these are not necessarily qualities we associate with Saltburn . But my dad was right . As usual .
Motor racing on Saltburn sands began in 1904 . Four years later , 60,000 spectators crowded onto the beach and headlands to watch Warwick Wright – a member of the family behind the great Teesside engineering company Head Wrightson - drive a car named Billiken at the then astonishing speed of 96.25mph .
The following year , Sir Algernon Guinness of the brewing family sped across the beach between Marske and Saltburn pier at the wheel of a V8 Darracq ( which looked like an aircraft engine mounted on a bedstead ). He covered a measured kilometre in 18.25 seconds , a British record .
Twelve months later , Sir Algernon was back in Saltburn with the intention of beating the world speed record of 127.659mph , set by American Fred Marriott at Daytona Beach . It was June , but the rain poured down . The soft sand denied Sir Algy a world mark , but his speed of
Need for speed – Motor racing taking place on Saltburn beach in the early part of the 20th century .
121.6mph was the fastest ever achieved outside the USA .
In 1911 , future Italian Grand Prix winner Pietro Bordino arrived at the Zetland Hotel at the wheel of a Fiat that weighed close to two tons and was powered by a 28-litre airship engine . The great red monster was nicknamed “ The Beast of Turin ”. It was owned by a Russian prince . It ’ s fair to say that no Italian arrival on Teesside would cause such excitement until Boro signed Fabrizio Ravanelli 85 years later .
Large crowds gathered to watch The Beast in action . Neither damp sand nor rain could stop the dashing Italian and his monster motor . He covered the measured mile in 31 seconds flat , setting a new record for what was known as “ the flying mile ”. Soon afterwards The Beast of Turin hit 132.27 mph – at the time , the highest speed ever attained by a motor car – on a beach in Belgium .
In June 1922 , Captain Malcolm Campbell borrowed the 350hp Sunbeam used by Sir Algernon Guinness ’ s younger brother Kenelm to break the Land Speed Record at Brooklands . Campbell believed the mighty V12 engine could go even faster on the straight , flat sands of Saltburn .
For once , conditions were excellent . Campbell embarked on a series of six runs along the beach that would see him hit a top speed of 138.08mph , five miles per hour quicker than Kenelm Guinness ’ s mark . A land speed record in Teesside , then ? Sadly , not quite . The rules governing the land speed record were administered by the Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnu in Paris . The AIACR were a pedantic bunch . Their rules stated that a car must cover the course both ways , the record judged on a mean of the two runs .
Campbell ’ s highest mean that day was 132.59mph . The driver complained and the British press protested , but rules were rules , the officials from Paris snapped .
And that was that . My dad tells me that the races on the beach stopped in the 1950s . “ Someone should bring them back ,” he insists .
I think we could all get behind that idea .
Harry Pearson ’ s latest book The Farther Corner – A Sentimental Return to North-East Football is out now .
162 | Tees Business