Los Angeles herald., 1907-08-31
RECORD FOR
SAN BERDOO RUN
LONG BEACH MAN DRIVES HIS
CAR AT HIGH SPEED
oIdsmoble Makes Trip from seashore
to Gateway of Desert in TWO
Hours and Forty
Minutes
nv HAINEs w. REED


| Two hours and forty minutes Is the new
record established by c. N. Johnson or
Long Bee / in his four cylinder Olds-
mobile touring car between Long Beach
and San Bernardino Thursday The dis
lance covered was more than eighty
miles over roads that are none too good
for speeding.
The machine used was demonstrate
car of the Johnson-Shields Auto COM
! pany of Long Beach. Johnson started at
2 o'clock in the morning4and no stop was
made on the way. The record is eX-
pected to arouse other autoists to try
to break 1t.
Everything in the racing line Is dead
in Southern California and every am
bilious automobiist who wants to do
speed stunts must go it alone. This has
led several local drivers to sally forth
after records during the past few months
The San. Diego record, broken by the
little two cylinder REQ, is notable ex-
ample of what these restless chauffeurs
are doing.
Shelters little machine negotiated the
distance in four and one half hours
whereas the former record was seven
hours.
Next month Mr.. Smiths Elmore will
tussle with Fenners white steamer over
the road to the Big Horn mine. This is
about the only. contest of interest, and
this would be more exciting If there
were more entries.
The motorcycle meet, to be held Labor
Day at Agricultural park, will interest
enthusiasts of the firecrao -er machines.
1t promises to be a first-class exhibition
in it's line. Besides the local entrants
there will be numerous racers of more
or less renown from San Francisco,
Fresno, and other parts of. the state.
Although things are dead locally,
numerous automobile contests are being
planned in other places for the near
future. Many of these are local to their
own City, but quite few are OF ma
tional Importance and will be watched
by automobile enthusiasts all over the
country.
Interest at Ormond
The Ormond road race for next Janu-
airy promises to be one of the most in
teresting among the number, as well as
one of the most BENEFICIAL to manufactur-
ers, as a comparison of the relative
merits of the different makes of cars en-
tered. Officials in charge are doing
everything possible to make the races a
test of the relative abilities of the cars
entered. All freak cars will be tabooed
and only stock cars with all their trim
mings will be allowed to participate in
the various events.
For 1903 the American Automobile asso-
citation is planning it's fifth annual tour.
which will probably leave New York and
go through New England. This will be
followed by five days reliability run in
the Mount Washington district. Two
hundred miles will be covered each day
with a daily return to Mount Washing
ton. For the fifth day climb up Mount
Washington is proposed. If this plan
goes through, there will undoubtedly be
a large list of entries.
A unique contest for the test of odom-
eters and speedometers Is being planned
by the New York Automobile club to be
held In October. Manufacturers of these
instruments have expressed their desire
for such a contest and the matter has
been referred to the technical and contest
committees of the club.