The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1908-11-14
SAVANNAH AUTO RACE
Fine Condition of Course For Gold
Trophy Contest.
CORNERS AND TURNS BANKED.

Southern Circuit, From Point of Speed
and Absence of Danger, Said to
Equal, if Not to Exceed, Long Island
Motor Parkway.
The Long Island motor parkway and
the state and county roads which COM
plete the course over which the Van
derbilt cup race of 1908 was run is
thought by many to comprise about
the fastest bit of racing ground for
automobiles that was ever constructed.
Georgia folk, however, from Governor
Hoke Smith down to the little black
lad whose favorlte dainty Is water
melon. make similar claim for the
twenty-six mile circuit Of prepared
roadway over which almost score OF
the swiftest automobiles In the world
Thanksgiving day In competition for
the $4,000 gold trophy and attending
cash prizes offered by the Automobile
Club of America. Not alone do the In
habitants of the Empire State OF the
South say that the southern raceway
Is far faster than the one on Long
Island. Those of the most skillful and
daring motor car drivers In the his
tory of automobile racing who have
put their machines about the circuit in
the southland say that from point of
speed and absence of danger there is
no auto racing ground anywhere, at
home or abroad, that compares with
the one at Savannah.
Consequently lovers of the game OF
auto car racing are looking forward to
the smashing of records when the
grand prize race of Nov. 26 Is run,
says the New York Evening Sun.
Since the Savannah race of March
last, when Lewis Strang drove an Isot-
ia a distance of 342 miles in 6 hours
21 minutes 20 seconds as the winning
car competing for the $1,000 cup offer.
ed by the Savannah Automobile club
the distance about the course has been
extended a fraction over nine miles
SO that now the total distance through
the city Of Savannah and through the
outlying country In Chatham county
Is exactly 2673 miles. A lap during
the race In March amounted to Ill
miles, the best time for this race be
ing made by AL Poole In an Isotta II
1t5 minutes 46 seconds, or an average
of a mile In a little more than fifty
Dr,6n
the Vanderbilt race on Oct "a covered
a lap OF 2346 miles In 20 minutes i
seconds, or an average OF a mile II
fifty-one plus seconds. These figures
would seem to uphold the contention
Of the Vanderbilt cup commission tina
the Long Island course is the faster.
However, construction work In tn
way Of grading, banking curves, oiiine
scraping. and so on, has been carries
on almost continuously since the even
In March, so that now the Savannah
course is said to be far faster than
was when Strang and Poole drove thei
machines about earlier In the veal
The sharp turns of the original ract
way have been banked. so that car
NAV take bends at almost straight
away speed with little danger to tn
motorists. The stretches have bee
widened, so that at certain points
number OF machines may spec
abreast. The surface has been role
and rerolled and scraped until It Is
perfect condition for racing.
The roadbed has been constructe
with view TO minimizing the wea
and tear OF tires. The concrete col
struction OF the motor parkway po
ttcn G. the Long Island course was q