Omaha daily bee., 1908-10-05
ROBERTSON WINS AUTO RACE
Driver of Simplex Car Finishes First
in Twenty. Four-Hour Grind.
TRAGEDIES MARK CONTEST
One Man IL killed, Five Injured
and SIX Cars Wrecked
LOsier ts
second.

- -E w @@N -
Robertson, driving simplex car No. q
flashed across the finish line at tho
Beach race track at l0;so o'clock
tonight. the winner OF the, second internal
tional twenty ovr-hour automobile race OF
the Motor Racing association. Harry Cobe.
driving a fifty-horse-pover LoSier machine.
was second, and Montague Roberts, at
the wheel Of a seventy-two-horse-power
Thomas, was third. Six cars finished, all
OF them being Americans. The foreign cars,
two French and two Italians. were put
out OF the contest by accidents. as were
three American cars. The final score was:
No. Make. Drivers. Miles.
6-Simplex. Robertson, Lescault. ...... LII
2-Lozier. Cobe. Milford ........o..,..1.t LIPS
s-Ttomas, Roberts, Winter ...........11iS
11-Alten- Kingston. LAhwell. Papperday. @1
@Cleveland, Chevrolet. Millen ,........ So
4-Stearns. Laurenth. Marquis ...-,... 5I5
The best previous record was l,107 miles.
The struggle for second place threw both
grandstands into the widest umult. Rob
erts. driving like one possessed. again and
again caught up with and passed the
Lozier car, driven by Cohe, cutting down the
latter's lead from nine TO four miles I'm
the twenty-third hour. But Roberts car
could not stand the strain and just, as Il
seemed as II second place was his, the
motors went wrong and he had to retire
TO his camp for new rubbers.
When he returned TO the track the
Lozier CIR had improved the opportunity
and the gap between the two was eight
miles. AT this j~uncture the referee ordered
the Cleveland and stearns cars to turn in
and give the leaders a clear field TO finish
the race.
One Dead, Five Hurt.
One dead. five injured, half q dozen costly
a N-..zFNI.. a.naaAa lnfa xryArNh-
less masses. speed records for a circular
track shattered-this tells the story of the
great twenty-four hour automobile race,
which ended at Brighton Beach race track
tonight. AS the nerve stralning contest
drew to a close a crowd OF more than
1900 persons gathered at the little race
course by the sea. There was excitement
a plenty from start to finish Of the race,
for hardly an hour went by without an ac-
cident happening.
The terrific speed maintained by the
racers cut the soft track into deep ruts
and every now and then the automobiles
would swerve into the low fences.
There was keen disappointment in the
crowd this evening, when car No. 5, a
Renault driven by the team OF strang
and Bssls was put out of the race by a
mishap. Almost from the start, the Rem
ault had been the contender for first
honors, being on equal terms and some
times ahead Of car No. 6, which car
during the closing hours Of the race was
fifty or more miles ahead of the other
racers.
| Policeman IL Killed.
with victory apparently assured by the
mishap to car No, s. Lescauit, who had
succeeded Robertson as dryer of the
Cs..-1o- ~, z .taolyapad gnsad aud drown
his car carefully so as to avoid mishap,
It was the Simplex that killed Thomas
Pickett, the special policeman who was
run down last night as he was trying 10
drive some boys off the track, and il was
impossible for the crowd to forget this
incident as the Simplex spun along In the
lead. Pickett died today In the hospital.
After the Renault was knocked out OF
the race tho chief interest was as to which
car would get second place. The struggle
for this honor was between No. ., a Lo-
zier and No. 8. a Thomas car. Roberts,
driver Of the Thomas. kept the spectators
in a state of excitement by his daring
driving. He took the Thomas around the
mile track at the rate OF fifty miles an
hour, but unfortunately for him his car
was followed by persistent bad luck, tho
motors working poorly and the shoes
repeatedly getting out OF order itoperts
had cut down the lead of the Dozier car
from eleven miles In the ninteenth hour
to eight miles In the twenty-first hour
In the last half of the twenty-third hour
OF the race the Inflated Zust car, driven
by Gratjen, dashed through the outer fence
and turned turtle. Gratjen's mechanic sus-
tanned a broken leg and possibly internal
injuries. Gratjen escaped with slight
bruises. The injured man was taken TO the
| field hospital for treatment. 1t was said
he would not die. The Zust car had been
compelled to withdraw from the race tenn
porarily several times and had no chance
of catching the leaders, but Gratjen be
lieved he could reel off some record miles
and this was the reason he took his ma.
chine on TO the track again.
The Simplex was given an ovation wher
Il darted by the grandstand on the thou
sandth lap Of the race, having made &
new record for 1000 miles. IT covered the
1000 miles in 2O;O9:i5, the best previous rec.
ord for the same period of time havinl
been 972 miles.
The hourly scores were posted on a bull
letin board and the crowd could easily keel
track Of the Individual work Of the drivers
These scores also showed that the foreign
made automobiles had been gradually elm
mated from the race until the final strug
gle was left entirely to the American-mad
cars.