New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-05-06
LIGHTNING BUG"

ner. ships chronometer and stop watches are
being used in the timing.
As soon as II began to get dark three hundred red
lanterns which had been strung about the track
were lighted. and with the two big searchlghts
on Wridgways machine, gave him sufficient light
to enable him to say confidently he would not lose
moro than nine or ten seconds mile during the
night. He is accompanied in the machine by a
machinist who is relieved by another at intervals
Charles Berman. of the machir,sts acts as a
driver while Wridgway is eating. the food being
passed from another machine from the end of a
long pole.
Wridgeway rode but one exhibition mile during
the day. During the last part of his second century
ne suddenly let his machine out covering a mile
IN lis. Joe Nelson, who was on the track at the
time in his Lighting Bug started to show what
his car could Go easily. He twice Tapped Wripdge-
way, making his mile in O:54 40
Wridgway made his start at exactly at 9:3S a m
For the first few miles he held his machine well
in hand and then suddenly let her out In a few
seconds he was going seventy miles an hour and
by the time fifty miles lay behind him he was
only nine seconds behind the worlds record for
fifty miles held by Barney OIdaeld. He had COW
cred the distance in IS minutes and Al seconds.
which is II minutes and As seconds ahead of the
Packard long distance record for that part of the
distance. He covered the first century in , hours
8 minutes Il seconds. which is IS minutes Is
seconds ahead of the Packard time At the end
of the Two hundredth mile. covered in hours 10
minutes seconds the old time had been further
reduced by hour 10 minutes and q seconds.
At the end of the first 800 miles he stopped seven
minutes TO refill his tanks and Mt a tire He
had been riding hours 1 minutes 20 seconds and
onds It was during s,is stop that sarIori. in the
Wridgway swung out into the course again the
track had been cleared of the wreck From that
time until midnight he held about the same lead
the old record. His time and gain over the
previous figures were at $50 miles hours IS min
hours Al minutes SO seconds, 400 miles, hours
20 minutes 10 seconds, which hours, min
- ;i ieSS tiiI tlle OIu -.S ~ Al, II,
At 800 miles he had dropped 10 hours IS min
utes % seconds his time being hours 80 minutes
55 seconds. During the next fifty miles his lead
dropped about minutes more. With his work
just half finished, he had lead Of hours Al min
utes "a seconds brief halt made Clen, while
his maChniSt was relieved and wheel placed
on the right of the axle. Wridgway said then
he felt tired, but would easily be able TO finish
without the slightest difficulty, barring accidents.
from IS TO 40 miles an hour until daybreak when
he intends to let her out the last notch. During
than hold his present lead until daylight, when he
hopes TO take of further two and a half hours.
At II o'clock heavy mist began to blow IL from
the sea In half an hour the lights the further
end of the track were partially obscured but
Wrldgway $ big searchlightS through the fog
like knife He did not diminish his speed but
kept up the thlrty-seven mile clip with clOcklike
precision.
After eleven o'clock wridgeway began to show
stopped. after crcling the track six hundred times
his face was drawn and haggard, but ne said he
felt fresh enough TO feel sure of having difficulty
in finishing. AT 1851 he hours 81 minutes
81 seconds ahead OF the old time of Is hours q
minutes. % seconds. He did the fifty miles in
hour, p minutes, y second. after having ridden
Is hours II minutes. 10 seconds being then bOurs
81 minutes 10 seconds ahead of the Packard record
BY that time, a m, the Scotch mist which had
chill. driZzng rain. through which the lamns and
even the big search lights made little impression.