Los Angeles herald., 1908-08-23
FOR THE
VANDERBILT CUP
COMMISSION GIVES OUT ITS
FIRST STATEMENT
DESCRIBES NEW MODEL COURSE
ON LONG ISLAND
Track VIII Be an Absolutely ideal
One, Covering an Extent of a
TrifIe More Than Twenty
five Miles

The first definite statement regarding
many interesting points in connection
with the new Long Island parkway and
with the race for the Vanderbilt cup.
which will be held on it october "a,
has been given out by the Vanderbilt
| Cup commission. The statement Is
prefaced by the assertion that very
little is yet known about the new ce-
ment course on Long Island over which
the 1908 race is to be run.
1T is very fitting that the big Amer
lean motor classic should now come
| into what might be termed its per-
manent course on historic and pictur-
esque Long Island, over the public
roads of which it has been run three
times" the statement adds.
Eleven miles of the Long Island
motor parkway, headed by William K.
Vanderbilt, jr., donor of the cup, will
be completed early in October for elm
ination trials of the American cars
| which are going to try for the cup.
This eleven miles is not sufficient for
| the entire course, but it is situated on
| the great plateaus of the famous
Hampstead plains, which are crossed
by many public highways, with sur
faces almost as level as that of the &C.
ment parkway itself.
| through the corporation OIL Tie Su-
pervisors of Nassau county the Van
derbilt Cup commission has been given
permission to use fourteen miles of
these excellent county and state roads
which, joined to the parkway at either
end, make an ideal triangular race
course of about 25.4 miles.
Early Start Assured
1.-THE race will start, as usual, soon
after daylight, and the grand stand.
which is to be located on a portion of
| the new cement way, where the spec
tators are afforded the finest view of
| the cement course, will be reached di-
rectly by special trains on the Long
Island railroad. A branch of this road
runs directly from Long Island City
to Garden City, which is about four
miles west of the beginning of the
course. Although the regular trains
do not run below Garden City at pres
ent, the tracks are in good repair as
far as Bethpage, which is the eastern
| terminus of the parkway, and the rail-
road company proposes to run side
tracks to the rear of the grand stand.
ut may be possible for visitors to
the race from a long distance to take
sleeping car at Long Island City on
the night preceding the race and re-
main in 1t on the grand stand side
tracks until the racing cars are called
to the line at daylight.
Never before have such complete ar
rangements been made for the accom-
mediation of visitors to an automobile
race. There will be eleven miles of
elegant parking space on either side Of
the cement way, undr the control of the
Vanderbilt cup commission. Heavy
steel wire fences will line the parkway
from beginning to end, so 1t will be
impossible for cars to pack at any par
ticular spot. They will be admitted at
no faI,
is the eastern entrance and beginning
of the parkway, and lined single file, in
accordance with the official parking
space diagrams. These spaces, together
with boxes and seats In the grand
stand, may be obtained by application
to j. de Mont Thompson, chairman of
the Vanderbilt cup commission, at the
Offices of the American Automobile as
ISOLATION, 437 Fifth avenue.
No Expense Spared
1.-THE cement portion of the new Van
derbilt cup race will be twenty-eight
feet wide; crossing all intersecting
railroads and highways overhead by
cement viaducts. now in course of con-
struction. These viaducts and bridges
are the most expensive portions of the
new motor highway. They must be
fully twenty feet above the level of the
intersecting dirt and railroads. The
approaches must be tapered down so
that the racing cars can take them at
full speed. All of the turns on the ce-
ment highway are symmetrically
rounded and banked, permitting a
maintenance OF the same speed which
the cars attain on the level stretches
after leaving the grand stand the
racers will have very fast run over
the cement for six or eight miles east
ward to Bethpage, where the parkway
joins what is known as the Round
Swamp road, which runs north, on a
slight grade, to the beginning OF the
Plainview road. Following this road
the car continues on north to its inter-
section with a new extension of the
Jericho turnpike. At this point the
course bends directly west, around
what has been dubbed the ''Flatiron
turn" The cars have a very speedy
stretch, nearly all down grade, west
ward along the Jericho turnpike extern
sion to Jericho, one of the turns on the
1906 Vanderbilt course. From there
the new course is over the old Jericho
road to its intersection with the old
Westbury road, thence south across a
very fiat country to the Hampstead
plains, thence to the beginning OF the
cement way and eastward over this to
the grand stand, the start and finish.
Near the beginning of the parkway
portion of the new Vanderbilt cup
course is the famous Meadow Brook
Hunt club. To the west of this famous
society rendezvous, along the old coun-
try road, is the town Of Mineola. West
of the town. and about four miles from
the entrance to the parkway. Is the
Garden City hotel, which will be the
headquarters for the Vanderbilt cup
commission. 1t is a very short run
from this well known hostelry down the
old country road to the cement park
way, and along this to the grand stand,
so that 1t viii be possible for visitors to
the cup race to remain. as heretofore, in
the Garden City hotel over night and
travel to the grand stand BY motor
early in the morning."