Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 June 1909 — AUTOS IN WHIRL AT CROWN POINT [ARTICLE]

AUTOS IN WHIRL AT CROWN POINT

Race For Indiana Trophy is Started on Time. THOUSANDS LINE COURSE Women, Children and Men Camp by the Roadside All Night and Are at the Grand Stand Early to See the Seventeen Engines Leave the Mark In the First Speed Battle of the ‘ Western Vanderbilt" Meeting. Crown Point, Ind., June 18. —As soon as Ihe signal was given shortly after i '.clock this morning a Corbin car, v 'rating and pulsating with fire and iiie. shot away from the mark on the Crown Point-Lowell parkway and the first big race of the “Western Vanderbilt’’ two days’ meeting was in full swing. A minute after the Corbin hurled itself oft, Charlie Burman in his Buick shot after Maisonville and his machine. Then came Stutz in a Marion and then, at regular intervals, the fourteen other contestants. There were cheers for all of the neck-risking pilots and cheers for the mechanics who were with them. Perhaps the most shouting was for Jimmy Florida and his Locomobile. Many Camped Out All Night. Florida was the first away from the mark in the last Vanderbilt cup race, and hundreds on hand to see this grind for the Indiana trophy had been among those present that rainy morning on Long Island when the same speed annihilator made blood tingle with the daring pace he set. George Robertson, who won that race, was away with the same confident smile he always wears. The thousands who lined the course and flocked in the pay-as-you-enter grand stands gasped as the racing engines blurred past them. The familiar shout, “Car coming!” meant a general reaching out of necks in one direction and then a sudden twist to the opposite side as a car appeared, whirled past, and disappeared again. Through a night made as comfortable as possible with blankets and camp fires and sandwiches and conversation, women and children and men had waited impatiently for the .battle of speed they now were witnessing. They forgot their eyes were a bit tired or that there might have been an ache in bones nnusued to resting outside of bed. The Caro and Their Drivers. Here is a complete list of the cars and drivers out to win the Indiana trophy: One —Corbin, A. J. Maisonville; 2 Buick, R. Burman; 3—Marion, H. E. Stutz; s—Chalmers-Detroit, W. Knip!per; 6 —Marion, A. Monsen; 7—Locomobile, J. Floridp; B—Buick. G. De ‘Witt; 9—Fal-Car, W. H. Pierce; 10Locomobile, G. Robertson; 11 —Moon, Phil Wells; 12 —Renault, Arthur W. Greiner; 14 —Buick, L. Strang; 15 — j Fal-Car, John Ruehl; 16—StoddardDayton, Wiseman; 17 —Chalmers-De-troit, Al Poole; 18—Stoddard-Dayton, Wright; 19 —Chalmers-Detroit, J. Matson. ’ No. 4. a Ford car, failed to reach the course in time. The circuit is 23.6 miles and the | distance of the race 232.74 miles, making ten laps. i Excursion trains from every direction keep adding to the throng that j was at the course overnight. This i town of 3,000 residents is fairly smothered under the avalanche of hui inanity, veiled, hooded, goggled and looking out sharply for a thriller in the shape of a wrecked racer.