The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-08-24
A DEAD HEAT AT
20 MILES AN HOUR
Thrilling Race on New English
Track Between Two High
Powered AutgS.

A noted English turf correspondent re-
Gently visited the new automobile race
track a few miles from London, and writes
of his experiences as follows:
1t was a battle between International
manufacturers and motorists. There were
half a dozen races, the stakes for which,
amounting to over $4,000, were tabuiated
in the orthodox way on the race card in
%''sovs." -Four out of the six races were
tame affairs. In the fifth a thrill OF ex-
element was provided by the drivers OF a
Mercedes car, who led the whole way in
a thirty-mile race and then threw away
the first prize of e1,4o9 by taking the
wrong turning at the end of the race. IN
stead of coming down the kilometre
straight on to the winning post, he
branched off at the fork and took another
lap. which enabled the car behind him to
be an easy winner.
However much you may decry motor
racing as a sport, it cannot be denied that
one race out of the six was one OF the
finest observation-disclosures rather homeland
bonnet-tussles ever seen on this side or
the Channel. Motor racing is so young
that a dead heat is looked upon as a
novelty, but today the dead neat De-
tween two cars going anything from
| seventy to ninety miles an hour on the
blOOhldllAS 6pttoWaS AOo6P
sensation, hitherto not experienced. 1t
seems incredible that mans inventive
faculty should be so perfectly developed
| that two machines built by two different
manufacturers and driven by two different
men for ten miles at a speed OF between
seventy and ninety miles an hour should
pass the winning post together. Yet TINS
took place in the Byf1eet Plate, between
Jarrett, the famous motorist, on q Lor-
II - - ~~.tA QnnfhnT star
in the motoring armament, on a green
Napier.
with the feelings of a man liable 10
resist the growing fascination for motor
racing, I wandered into the paddock Just
before this tremendous race started. Inc
Duke of Westminster, Lord Montagu, Loro
Carnaryon. LORD Lonsdaie and other mem
bers of the motoring aristocracy clusteren
round tho oll-dripping a~sphyxiatlng' Cat
~ling-gun-like monsters whose steel skele-
tons were exposed to the sun, and the
breath of whose nostrils was a blue nau
secus vapor. Such a snorting. a Kissing, 9
banging and a crashing l have nevei
heard.
The mind revolss at the memory OF the
beautiful. lissom creatures CT the grey
hound type generally associated with tnt
paddock. Built for no other reason thai
to lean through the ali at 80 miles an hour
with one square inch of room for TN
demon at the wheel, you approach tnes'
throbbing engines of speed with the SAM
trepidation as that to which YOU woult
confront an Infatuated bull ready to spring
upon you.
The clerk of tae course, with a boy car
rylng a huge ~megaphone at his heels, bel
lows the order to canter to the starting
gate. The jockeys. in all colors Of the rain
bow. crouch down in their seats with on
hand on the starting lever. Jarrett is u
a white macintosh, Newton in a whit
coat and sleeves and green cap. Their
were two or three other cars in the race
but IT was to be a fight between Jarrot
and Newton. This WIS described as a rae
over a distance of 10. 307S miles, for mo
tor cars propelled by means Of lnterna
combustion engines only; OF a cylinder al
mension ITO to under 1876: weight 800
pounds; entrance, % sovs. which is Dutcl
to non-motorists.
They're off"
Three times round the speedway an.
down the kilometre straight, and 1t was a
over. Enthusiasm in the race began t
grow after the FIRST lap, when the car
nrrsed euch other round the banked cor
ner with no daylight between them. Tn
motor sportsman has his own
and the conversation around me was in
tensely ''racy.h
If Jarrett misses fire he'll come IN lasl
II he doesn't break his cam-shaft he ma
win bv a Wheel
Better say a bonnet"
The pace Increased from sixty to sew
enty and on to eighty miles an houi
Round the ben Jarrett passes Newtor
and ON the fiat Newtonl repasses Jarrett.
THE last lap"
The two men now seem to be goin
faster. Strange to say. there was no on
) cial timekeeper. and we had to guess IN
speed. This win be put right at the mex
meeting. Through the glasses, Jarrett
! mechanism can be seen struggling to 81
something right near the bonnet OF tn
machine. One OF the other cars burst
into flame. Still the pace is kept up.
Now they're on the kilometre straight.
After only three times round the speed
way. Jarrett and Newton. stu huegin
one another. have nearly Tapped the