Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-10-03
RECORDS BROKEN
Automobiles in . Mad and Dar. Ing Race d Brighton Beach
 Race Track
INJURED AND DYING

 ed racing machines behind them, six of the 12 automobiles which started in the 24-hour race at the Brighton Beach race track last evening were still in the mad whirl at 8 o'clock to-day. Apparently no danger was too menacing to the daring pilots at the steering wheels of the flying ma chimes. As a result all previous rec ords had been left far In the dis tance and 1t was apparent that if the terrific speed of the leaders was maintained to the end nearly If not quite 100 miles would be added to the 24-hour figures.
 The fearful pace maintained from the first hour shriveled up every existing record, the four leaders at the end of the tenth hour being in advance of the best previous mark from 3 to 43 miles. This was not accomplished, however, without a fearful demolition of cars and col lisions and spills in which driver and mechanican escaped death by the farrowest margin. In the third hour a piling up of racing machines going at better than 55 miles an hour was averted as by miracle. four cars grouped closely together being thrown into confusion by the crossing directly in their path of M. c. Pickett, special patrol officer. Three of the cars managed to avoid the dodging figure on the track but Robertson's machine struck him with fearful force and hurled him 60 feet. He was picked up unconscious and is now in a critical condition at hospital. All the other injured are drivers and mechanics on the racing cars.
 None of them is seriously hurt. The mishaps crowded fast upon one another through the night. The French car, No IA, catching fire in the seventh hour and the Italian en try, No Is, crashing into the fence soon afterwards retiring both for the remainder of the contest. No 4, which had been smashed in the mixup resulting from the running down of Pickett, remained off the track six hours, undergoing repairs, but re-entered the contest in the ninth hour. The Italian entry, driv- en by de Palma. and the American car driven by Chervelst were next to come to grief, the former cracking two cylinders and the latter freez- ing its bearings. The Italian car re- tired in the eighth hour and the American car in the seventh. In the tenth hour, however, the American entry, No g, had been sufficiently repaired to re-enter the contest, but was forced to retire again after go- ing only three miles.
 At 8 o'clock the field had been re- duced to six cars by the careening of No z in the eleventh hour and of these only the first four were keep ing up the lightning pace. The acci- dent to car No 2 was caused by the explosion of tire.
 At the conclusion of the twelfth hour the track was cleared to permit repairs being made on the turns, which had been badly cut up. It was the intention to suspend the race until 10 o'clock. This would bring the twenty-four hours to a close at 10 o'clock tonight. The score at the end of the twelfth hour was:
 No 5, SIS; No 6, 612; No 8, 565; No 2, 562; No II, 413; No 4, 254.
 The best previous. record was 565 miles. Policeman Pickett, who was struck by racing car and seriously hurt during the night, was reported as showing slight improvement to- day. His condition is extremely criti- cal, but the surgeons at the hospital where he was taken said they be- lieve he will have a chance to re- cover.
 When the race was resumed after the two hours intermission, the American car, No 10, driven by Young and Doty which had been pre- vented from starting by collision with Mieheners car carly last night appeared as a fresh contestant Mich ener, who also had been temporarily out of the race reappeared at this time in No 2. replacing Cobe who had been injured. According to some of the drivers who witnessed the acci- dent to Bloch, the driver of French car, in the seventh hour it appears that his escape from death was al- most miraculous. When his car, ablaze and going at fifty mile clip, overturned, he was caught under 1t and held there. A blow of the driv- ing wheel against his chin knocked him unconscious and had 1t not been for the driver and mechanic of No 15 who stopped their car and jumped out to pull him from under the blazing wreck he must have been burned to death. The score at the end of the thirteenth hour:
 No 6, 65s miles; No 5, 655; No 2, 611; No s, 500; No II, 451; No g, 267; No 4, 255; No 10, 243.
 Car No had been forced to with draw from the track before the end of the 18th hour and while Strang, Robertson, Winters, Michener( who had been substituted for Cobe) and Lahwell were fighting 1t out in every mile a small army of machinists and repair men weer struggling with the disabled racing machines Nos 4. 5 and g. No Is had been so badly dam aged by its hurdling of the northeast fence that three new wheels and Q new magneto carbureter, pump and radiator had to be put in. Laurent's car. No 1. was evenin sorrier plight. A breakueck trip to New York and back to bring a new front frame and axle had been found necessary. In the case of Chevrolet's car. No 5. new front wheels and steering ap- paratus had been put in. Nos 3. :.