The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1908-11-24
HAUPT'S SPEED ON
SAVANNAH TRACK
CAUSES SURPRISE
Early and Strang Make Is
Mile Circuit In 22;03
and 22:04
LOCAL FAVORITE HOWEVER
HAS USUAL BAD LUCK
Some Great Time Made BY Small Cars,
Too-Great Races Start Tomor-
row and Run Through
Thanksgiving.

| Savannah. Ca, November 23.-Although
the Il foreign cars in the grand prize
race, tic be run here on Thursday, are
| still the favol1tes over their six Amer
/ lean rivals, the honors of the final prac-
| tice spi.is over the 25-mile course today
! went to one of the American entrants,
and the automobile enthusiasts who are
anxious fer an American victory over the
flower of the foreign makes have grown
decidedly more hopeful. Willie Haupt,
a young American driver, who began
his racing career not more than two years
ago, ami who has amazed some of the
older men at the wheel by his SEEM
ingly reckless speedings around the turns,
made one round of the course today at
an average speed of approximately Il
miles Sn hour. The unofficial timers
caught the lap at 2l.Os To gain this aver
age over a course which has Is banked
turns ard 26 fiat curves, it was neces-
sary for the young driver of the Chad
wick car to attain a speed of more
than ~ miles in the straight stretches.
Haupts car seems to be more sensi-
tive TO the uneven places in the road
than any of the others and today when
he was setting this new record for the
course, the biz six-cylinder racing ma
chine appeared constantly to leave the
ground. Haupt reported later that be-
caus. of excessive oil on the course at
one turn. his car sped along on two wheels
for 70 feet or more. On his second tour
of the course Haupt threw a tire from
one of the rear wheels. His speed was
so great that when the car was brought
TO standstill and the meehanician
sent back, no trace of the tire, which
evidently had been. hurled OFF into the
dense underground along the Ferguson
avenue stretch could be found
strang's Usual Hoodoo.
Lewis Strang, member OF the Renault
French team, made three laps of the
course in remarkably fast and consistent
time The first lap was accomplished,
in 2.O4 ard the third in 22.o5. This
meant an average speed of about IS
miles an hour.
Erie of the Benz team, the German
entrants, made one lap In 2 .09 or a speed
shade bettor than Strang. Strang
STOPPED in front of the grandstand after
his third lap, and when he went to
crank Up again the engine refused to
start. fhe driver and the mechanician
WORKED for hour or more, but the
sullen racer could not be coaxed to any
thing more exciting than an occasional
loud explosion in the muffler pipes.
In the last Vanderbilt cup race Strang
was put out of the running right at the
starr because of the failure of his en-
CINE to respond to the initial cranking.
The sped attained by the foreign and
American drivers in the preliminary
trials have lett renewed assurance of a
new American record for road racing on
Thursday next. In the Vanderbilt cup
this year. Robertson's winning time was
64.3 miles an hour In 1906 the Vanderbilt
a.
is was Ga a. and in 1904 the best average
was 52.2 miles. In the grand prix race
of the Automobile club of France, the
average speed of the winner in 1906 was
62.S miles an hour; in 1907 it was 100 for
the AIS miles, and this year the winners
mark was 69 miles an hour Szisz, who
won the grand prix in 1906; Nazzaro, who
won the same classic in 1907, and Hem
cry who ran second among the 40 start
ers Ibis year, are all entered in the race
to be- run here on Thursday.
Burman's Great Speed.
The "haby racers" entered in the inter-
national light car race to be run on
"Wednesday as o preliminary to the Amer
lean grand prize, were all out on the
course today and succeeded in setting
new marks for the perfect rectangle
which COMPRISES the short 9.S-mile course
This course, which is part of the larger
grand prize route, has but four turns
and sll left handed. Burman, the driver
who has smashed up two cars and one
mechancian, and who had to go it alone
in mary of his trial spins thereafter
made one circuit today in his little
Buick in 1913, or average between
81 aa6 IS miles hour. The best av-
erage tie promoters of the race have
dared TO hope for, for the more than 200
miles is 40 miles hour. f. T. Came
ron, driving 8 Cameron car, made a
circuit cf the short course in 1923, the
second best time of the day for the light
cars.
More than 1000 people crowded the
grandstands today to witness the last of
the try-outs for the big race and the
interest taken in the event here exceeds
anything the racing folk have met with
in any other country.