Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 May 1909 — THE GREAT AUTO RAGES IN LAKE. [ARTICLE]

THE GREAT AUTO RAGES IN LAKE.

A Chicago Paper Tells What Is Being Done In the Matter of Entries, Etc. Nominations for the Cobe trophy race and the light car chassis contest, both of which will take place at Crown Point, Ind., at the June 18-19 carnival of the Chicago Automobile Club, are coming in slowly, but there are sufficient entries to make both contests interesting. Quite a number of additional entries are expected this week, and the committee is hopeful that several foreign cars will be nominated to give the Cobe contest an international flavor. The Cobe race, for which eight entries are already recorded, will be over a route of 410 miles, the longest road event or its kind ever promoted in this country. The light car contest, which will be the curtainraiser, has the same number of entries, but will be over the shorter distance of 245 miles. The nominations made during the past week were two Knox cars, two Marions and a Flat, the latter to be driven by its owner, E. A. Herne, while all other cars thus far entered for either event will be handled by professional drivers of diversified experience in the racing game.

A number of prospective entrants have given up all idea of competing in either race, some in fact having no notion from the start of really making a deposit of SSOO when the test came, but there is reasonable assurance of at least a dozen further nominations for both events. Plans for the road racing carnival are rapidly maturing. Contracts have been let for Improving the course, which is already macadem for its entire circuit, the club having decided to spend $30,000 in producing a course that will be tlfe fastest in the country. Laborers have been at work on the course for a week now, remaking the surface and putting on a Taroid finish which will give a top dressing similar to that on city boulevards. This work is to be completed by June 5, after which the entrants will be allowed on the circuit.

Another big contract was let yesterday when David A. Root of Crown Point, Ind., tackled the job of building the grandstand, parking spaces, press stand and repair pits. The grand stand will hold 10,000 people and from the advance sale of seats there seems to be no reason why every one should not be sold a week before the races. All the parking spaces at present available have been sold and nuge blocks of seats in the grandstand have been disposed of.

Colonel Sanborn of the First Regiment of the Illinois National Guard is making active preparations to guard the course with his citizen soldiery. This will be the first time xon record where the militia of one state has been permitted to go into another commonwealth for the purpose of patroling a road race course. The Illinois soldiers are mostly veterans of the late Spanish war and have had a vast experience at work of this sort.