Reed pluckily walked back, had his injuries dressed and resumed racing, until his tank, damaged in the crash, leaked all its fuel away. Then race-leader Herbert Le Vack had the rear tyre on his Indian burst along the Railway Straight. He nursed his way round to the pits, where they didn't waste time removing the tyre but simply fitted a new wheel-and-tyre ready-inflated. The stop still cost him 6 seconds, giving D.H. Davidson's Harley�Davidson a 12-mile lead.
A.A. Prestwich (350cc Dot-JAP) and C. Sgonina (500cc Triumph Ricardo 4-valve) both went out with seized engines; F.G. Edmonds had tyre trouble on his side-valve Triumph; Claude Temple on a Harley-Davidson had both tyre and engine trouble and had to retire when lying third. Padley on a 500cc Blackburne misjudged his braking speed and sent several pit personnel scattering, and S.M. Greening came off his 350cc Coulsoll-B at speed and had to go to hospital. The 350cc flat-twin "Royal" Douglas entered by HRH The Duke of York (who later became George VI) and ridden by S.E. Wood threw a rear tyre, then broke a chain, and was finally disqualified for receiving unauthorised pit assistance.
Next it was first-place-man Davidson's turn for tyre trouble, and Le Vack's Indian moved ahead again, followed by a chunky young rider named Freddy Dixon, having his first Brooklands race ever. His Harley-Davidson was distinguished by the foot-boards he preferred to rests, and by the self-devised steering damper, the first ever seen on a motorbike in England. A third innovation by the ingenious Fred didn't work so well. Finding in practice that he continually slid back off the saddle, he glued on some emery cloth for the race. First it wore through his breeches, then through his underpants, and finally it started on Fred himself! As he later said, 'Was my .... red!'
Re-seated more comfortably, he sped back into the race, and when Davidson stopped for another tyre, "rooky" Dixon found himself leading the race at the 200 miles mark. But on his 82nd lap his front tyre deflated and came off along the Railway Straight; the Harley went down, skidding almost the whole length of the straight while its rider was thrown off. He turned three somersaults, picked himself up, reputedly uttering terrible oaths, and tottered along to his fallen bike, remounted, rode slowly round to the pits for a new tyre, and went back into the race. Tough was Fred!
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