Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-11-27
F. |. A. 7. WINS
BIG AUTO RACE
IN THE SOUTH
WAGNER DRIVES ITALIAN CAR
TO VICTORY
FIRST PLACE WON BY NARROW
MARGIN OF So SECONDS
New Record Is Made In Savannah
Grand Prize Event When 4o2.e
Miles Are Made In
6:1o:31
[Ry Associated Press. ]

miles of roadways by the experienced
hand of Louis Wagner in 6 hours 10
minutes and 81 seconds, won today the
most spectacular, the longest and the
fastest international automobile race
ever brought off in this country.
Fate played a game of hide and seek
with three grim and grimy hooden fig
ures that sat behind the big steering
wheels and throttles, and fought with
skill and daring for an advantage OF
seconds at the finish of the more than
six hours of driving through the sitting
fumes of burning oil, into storms of
sand and gravel, at risk of life and
limb, for the honor of trophy cup and
a purse Of gold.
The three drivers who clung together
from the very start were shuffled about
like so many cards as the flying laps
were reeled off.
For a time there was fourth figure
in the leading column, but while little
more than a minute separated the first
from the last of the cars in the whir-
ring quartet, a caprice of fortune sent
one pitching from the road. Out of the
mass of wreckage Fritz Erie, who has
been driving the German Benz, No. 3,
was taken with broken nose and
broken jaw.
Still the struggle continued and it
was not until the last minute of the
last lap that the tide of victory turned
to Wagner. Navarro, the wonderful
Italian driver, holder of worlds rec
ords, and winner of countless contests,
who had clung tenaciously to mar
row margin of lead for more than a
hundred miles, hesitated long enough
at the supply pits to change weak
ening tire and lost. The treacherous
rubber tubing burst as he was about
to enter the home stretch, and three
minutes of delay that followed sent the
Grand Prix winner of last year, and
his F. I. A. t. No. 6, from first to
third place. Hemery, in a German
Benz No. 8, favorite of the followers
of automobile racing, took second hon
orS.
Finish Remarkably Close
It was not until the official time was
announced that the actual winner was
known-that Wagner had hurled him
self to victory by the slender margin
of Sc seconds. Hemery was the first
to finish the sixteen laps of the race
and enthusiastic thousands hailed him
as winner without needing the six
minutes in the race which Wagner
held Hemery having been sent away
at the start at 1852 this morning ana
Wagner at 9;5S.
The minutes of waiting after Hemery
had driven the big Benz car over the
finish line seemed to be hours to the
adherents of the missing car. Tt was
Just as the fifth of the flying minutes
was ticking itself away that the blast
of bugles and the roar of Gar coming"
rang out. Wagner! Wagner! Wag-
ner!" cried the crowd, and. hitching
down the stretch, the red car tore for
the fateful line. The cheers suddenly
changed to an oppressive hush as the
narrowness of the time margin was
realized, and it was not until the judges
signaled to the anxious little gang of
Italian workers in the supply pits that
it was definitely known who had won.
Wagner drove a remarkably steady
race. He stopped several times for
supplies and once seemed to be in Sc
rious trouble right in front of the
grandstand. Something was wrong be-
meath the car and down under the
maze of cranks and wheels the mechan-
ician plunged. In a jiffy he was
through. Wagner in the meantime had
been pouring gasoline into one tank
with his right hand and lubricating oil
into another with his left. 1t was thls
delay that took Wagner out of the
lead in twelve of the sixteen laps of
the race and gave it to Navarro, whose
troubles were to come later.
De Palma Drives Fastest Lap
In winning this Grand Prize race of
the Automobile Club of America over
the Savannah course Wagner set new
record for road racing in this country.
George Robertson, in the Vanderbilt
cup race of 25S miles last month, set
the mark at 64.3 miles an hour. Today
the longer distance of 1923 miles was
negotiated by Wagner for an average
of 65.55 miles an hour. He averaged
twenty-three minutes to each one of the
sixteen laps, which measured 20. IL
miles. His fastest lap was made In
21.50, but the lap honors of the day
went to De Palma, at the wheel OF
Fiat, No. IS, which twice made the
circle in 21.36, an average of about
seventy miles an hour.
From the moment the race got fairly
under way it developed into battle
between the foreign cars. The Ameri-
can racers seemed.unable to stand the
pace cut out by the others and most
powerful speed machines from France,
Germany and Italy.
The race lay between the cars that
finished first, second and third almost
from the start. De Palma held the lead
for the first two laps, but Navarro soon
gained it and held it for 100 miles, the
delay for tires on the last lap finally
causing him to lose, getting third place,
finishing behind Victor Hemery, with
Benz.
Henriot, with Benz, pushed his car
across the finish line by hand, assisted
by his mechanician, and won fourth
place.
There We're many other prizes at
stake besides the $4,000 gold cup for
the owner of the winning car and the
$4,000 purse for the driver. Second
place was rewarded by purse Of $4,000,
while third and fourth places were
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