The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-10-07

Cars Beaten-vast 1hronss view the
Car KnIs . Spectator One Bey
wounded serisusiy-Mishaps Of the
Race-Tte Gathering OF the rhronss
Thousands Of Autos On the Course
Spirited Scenes and incidents Of nay
No More Races On Lsnk Issnd.
For the third time In the three year old
history OF the ,aDnusl automobile race for
the Vanderbilt cup on Long Island, un-
doubtedly the. greatest sporting event In
America, the race was won by a French
car. Louis Wagner, driving the French
100 horsepower Darracq, covered the
course OF 2s7 miles in 700 minutes 10 rs
seconds.
Vincenzo LAncia.' who drove a 40 horse
power Italian Fiat. was second. VITA IN
elapsed time Of 2es minutes and % as SEQ
onds. Third in the race was Arthur Dursy;
driving a 100 horsepower Lorraine Dietrich.
also a French car. France also made the
OdT IhA1 ran touith1 NfothouO-Daydius
driven by Clement.
Wagner, the winner, who got his lead in
the first lap and held il throughout Inc
daredevil rush from dawn until almost
noon, had been picked as the iavorite
by even his' competitors several days ago.
IF the Darrsoq holds together through
the big race the other drivers have been
saying all week, we can't beat Wagner"
Wagner broke a precedent yesterday.
In 1904 Heath won the Vanderbilt cup
Just after he had won the sprint over the
Ardennes circuit in Belgium. The follow
ing year Victor Hemery won on Long Island
after beating his competitors around the
Ardennes course. The superstitiOus re-
membered this when Duray anne up to
the tape at dawn yesterday, following his
recent first on the Ardennes circuit. His
tory refused. however, to repeat.
Tracy, the winner Of the recent elimination
races, was the popular hero at yesterdays
race. Unfortunately for the hero and his
American car, a ISooomObile. Tracy met
with a series OF troubles and his car did
not make "A creditable showing. This "
true alsO Of the four other American cars
entered.
THE REAL B%EGINNING OF TINE RACE.
SO much for the bald facts Of the grand
stand bulletin board. The real story ot
the race for the Vanderbilt cup has to do
with shrieking. uncanny things that upset
the nerves of strong men; with blinking
considerations that hOnk in a silly way far
of in the darkness: with crashing bands
and gayly clad women. and the restless
movement OF human beings numbering .
quarter Of a million. and all wrapped in the
witcheTy and mystery OF the night.
Anybody who thinks that the Vanderbilt
cup races begin AT dawn along a country
road on Long Island is lacking pitifully in
know ledge Of these races. They begin &C
midnight before in rhe Eeighborhood Of
Herald Square, Manhattan, and they end
really hours after the running OF ~tlsecoptest-
ing cars has been finished. For it is the
crowds and all the tTrmoil and gayety Of
80 vast a gathering OF people hat make
the races the wonderful spectSoies they are.
If the races were begun in the broad
glare Of nOOn half their chagm would be
lost. 1t is the uIearthliness Of the hour
during which the spectators gather in a
seemingly unending chain Of thousands Of
automobiles that CLEAN with big eyes far
away in the darkness which grips the on
locker. And there il always present the
feeling that within that era blur which
brushes along a brown road like the shadow
OF a wind driven cloud are two athletic men
who perhaps are rushing toward a terrible
death a few rod further along the Ocurse.
You wonder whether they will live to pass
the grand stand again.
Everybody has a faint. conception at least
Of tie visual impression made by that pass
ing grayish streak on the oiled roadway.
What the sound made by the exploding
R~asOlene within the streak is like is not so
easy to conceive. IL has been likensd
to the composite popping OF all the oorks
that were ever pulled on the Great White
Way. Some have said that it resembles
the steady discharge Of a machine gun
kicking itself backward through space by
It's own power. To come down 70 plain
facts the noise Is most like that made by
the cellar furnace while being shaken down
savagely by the breadwinner OF the house
In the chill gray dawn OF the morning after.
Not a heroic Simile this. but an apt one.
al OF THE CROWD ron THE SCENE.
Any one who left for yesterdays race by
way OF Manhattan-and this was the start
ing point Of most Of the 200 600 OF 300 900
people who trimmed the course with a human
fence over twenty-seven miles lOng-began
10 feel picnicky as soon as he reached any
place on Thirty-fourth street from Broad
way east TO the f~erryhouse. Under the
Sixth avenue elevated tracks stood groups
Of people before midnight, impatiently
reaching out for the handles on the CROSS
town cars and climbing over one another
in their anxiety to get TO Long Island City
and h trains.
IL was q rollicking. festive crowd. some
times displaying shamelessly bottles filed
with a rod lianOr and irving L arnal ~