Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1906-10-06
TOday's Telegraphic News
Wagner Wins Race.

Vanderbilt Cup Course, l.. l., Oct. 6.
The starting Of the Vanderbilt cup
race was delayed fifteen minutes owing
TO a dense fog
W. K. Vanderbilt jr donor of the
cup, the referee Of the race, drove his
Fiat racer several miles down the Jericho
pike from the start shortly before six
O'Clock and saw the fog had not
lifted to make racing practical. He or
dered a postpouement until 6:l5, the
clouds were bsnging low, but the drivers
get clear view 10 let their machines
out.
To the boom of an aerial bomb an
rouncing the start Of the race LIE BloD,
the French driver, of the American
Thomas flyer, got away the first car
exactly on the second. The great crowd
gave the driver and mschinist hearty
send-off.
The track conditions were unfavorable,
the heavy fog having made the going
greasy. lie Blon's start showed the
roads slippery and several other machines
OF the II starters which left at exact
minute intervals, one minute being
dropped for Foxhall Keene, who failed
to start, as No. IL showed tendency
not to take willingly to the road. All
the machines wore heavy tire armament;
10 prevent skidding.
TIE third running of the Vanderbilt
auto cup race was watched by the great
est number of people that ever assembled
in this country at single sporting event
The largest concourse of automobiles yet
gathered in the United States thronged
Nassau county. This crowded the special
trains which left Long Island City every
minute from midnight before the multi
tude of enthusiasts who cannot afford
motors reached the course.
Single beds in private dwellings and
second rate hotels in the vicinity of the
course brought prices that even the ra-
pacious country botelkeepers had never
dreamed of assessing. The prominent
hostelries in the aristocrstic neighbor-
hood had been booked to their limit
months ago
The scene about the 29:77 miles of
oiled highway we're such as have become
familiar to the cup race. Shelter tents
we're pitched on the roadsides and in
fields, while motorists who brought their
autos to Nassau county last night slept
under the hoods of the tonneau cushions
without thought of discomfort.
The country hotels and bsr-rooms
we're wide open all night, all excise reg
ulations being suspended.
The race was very exciting through.
out, although Wagner, who was the VIC
tor, was in the lead most of the time.
This is the third time the Vanderbilt
cup race has been won by French
automobile and fo' the second time by
Darracq machine Louis Wagner, a
Frenchman, hitherto unknown in this
country, repeated the trick that the great
Hemery performed last year. He car
ried his machine ten times around the
circuit of 29:77 miles with an average
speed of 40 miles an hour, making
but one circuit in over 80 minutes and
averaging decimal over 29 miles to the
lap. No more mastery race was ever
driven than was Wagner's today, but he
shares the honors with Lancia, who,
twice defeated 10 Vanderbilt cup race,
still carries a reputation which places
him high among racing drivers.
Lancia finished scant three minutes
behind Wagner, after the Italians 100
horse power Flat had wrestled for 297
miles with the Frenchman's ITO horse
power Darracq. Third in the race was
Duray, with his 120 horse power Diet
rich, a little over seven minutes in elapsed
time behind Lancia To Wagner is due
the achievement of driving a race in
which bis elapsed time was always less
than that of any of his competitors in a
long grilling contest, the demands of
which experts said was very distressing.