The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-07-06
The Fourteenth Event
Being the Impressions ImpressOnbe Young Man Witnessing His
First Motor Race a Saucer Track

a streak of whirling metal he had
crossed the line ahead of skillful,
sandy field. The announcer told the
crowd what he had done. There was
ripple of cheering and nandclapping
from one side and the other as he
shifted his megaphone. Across from the
judges several youths led a vigorous
cheer. Then the crowd collectively set
tied down and looked at the programs
and threw off forty or fifty centuries
and waited against possible, mechan-
ical. murder.
''The fourteenth event, ffve-mile mo-
tor race handicap professional; prizes
$50. $50. $25. Gus Lawson, scratch; T.
NJ. Samuelson, handicap; Redman,
four laps. Death against the field
Redman was the first on the track.
He mounted his machine and in pre-
Iiminary trial ran into the grass. This
looked interesting, as if something
might happen. 1t isn't healthy to run
motor cycles into the grass at very
high rate of speed. He was followed
by Gus Lawson and Samuelson. They
took a preliminary rum around the
track. I say they-I mean their ma
chimes did. The effect at slow rate of
speed is that of a machine on two
wheels carrying a man about at its
own free will. Barking and frisking
flash of white-muscled leg and the lift
and fall of handle bar in the man-pow-
er races, the occupant of the motor
seems to have abSurdly little to do.
About as much as a man sitting down
and sliding down the track at the
curved places They wore fearful and
wonderful garb, consisting of football
helmet and jockey sweater, with large
white muslin numbers pinned to their
backs to tell who they were after the
rest of them was covered up, or per-
haps to aid in quickly identifying the
remains. This much up to the start.
Then:
Three Blurred Streaks.
A cheer from the crowd. And three
blurred streaks began to whirl about
in a circle. You grabbed the edge of
the seat and began gradually 30 short
en- the exposure of your mental films.
When you got used to ii after four or
five laps you got so that you could sep
arate the blurs into individuals on
wheels. The air became pregnant with
gasoline As the motors would go by
you could see the flash of the sparks
quicker and brighter. Lawson max
ing up his handicap, passes 'Redman
and then Samuelson, taking the upper
edge of the almost vertical track as
AiC UOCS So ~ AiAC NuA We iiC POI
allel with the ground, so near is he to
the upper rail. The final great handi-
capper. Death. is almost close at his
rear tire as it skids on his way back
into the even running,
AS they go by again on the next lap,
he reaches back to the lever. There is
flash of sparks. The musketry rat
tie of the exploding gasoline quickens
and to its accompaniment he ceases TO
be a moving spot and becomes a cir
cular line about the track, and over
takes his competitors again three turns
beyond, this time running between
them so that for a second they form a
single triangular moving blur, out of
which anything may come, or nothing,
or pieces. They shoot past the stand
this time, wheel in front of wheel, with
but small gap Of space between, sep
arate, and the Lawson blur is again
ahead. The race is nearing the close
and his four laps are well in hand.
There is a final squirt. The gong COM
mences, and the band, ten seconds, or
an eighth of a mile. later. practically
at the same time. The same time in
which the fastest men on earth cover,
running, 100 yards. They flash over
the tape one by one. None wait for the
announcer to tell who won. The crowd
get up and goes home, Death has lost.
| The swiftest and most deadly sport
! ever devised by man is over.