Los Angeles herald., 1909-11-14
WITHOUT HITCH
BUICK LED WAY.
INTO PHOENIX
LITTLE WHITE CAR SUSTAINED
IT'S WELL EARNED NAME
NOT A MISHAP TO MOTOR OR
WORKING PARTS OF ENGINE
Lhte Marvel of Automobile World
Stands Pre-eminentIy the Won-
der of Material, Skill and
Mechanism

Without a hitch-without break
without single thing that interfered
with the mechanism of the little white
car whose name or the racing lack
of America is better known than any
horse that ever sped the charmed cir
Gle, the Buick may lay just claim to
the honor of not only making the mar
velous reduction In time over last
years Los Angeles-Phoenix race by
eleven hours, but exhibiting to the
world the sterling stuff from when
she Is constructed and the capacity
of her materials. To speak of the car
as one of size is all the more marvel
Gus, for in reality while ample in ca
pacity for carrying purposes, she was
so overbalanced by size in her COM
petitors that one can only wonder the
more at what the Buick accomplished
upon that long and hard road to the
territorial capital.
Her crew-two brothers-everywher
are commended for their splendid per-
formance, which was clocklike In move
ment. Not a mistake was made In
route and trail. Not a slip of the en-
gine caused them a delay of a moment,
but with eeaseless grind for over nine
teen hours the little white fellow
pegged along through disheartening
sand and over rocky trails without
single sign of distress and carried her
victorious crew to honor and prizes.
1t IS one of the most remarkable
records ever made in the history of
automobile road racing Ii was re-
markable in several ways. The Mix
rent brothers clipped eleven hours and
twenty-three minutes from the record
OF F. C. Fenner of last year. In this
great race across 4S0 miles of sand,
rocks. washes and the vilest sort OF
roads imaginable, the Buick, a com
paratively cheap car, won against
foreign car costing $4,000 and against
a field Of the best and fastest cars that
arc made In America. Without any
question yesterdays automobile race
was the one race of the whole year
in automobile circles. The race of a
year ago, which was started by the
offer of silver cup by this paper as
a prize jumped into national import
anee yesterday as the one great en-
durance test of the country. There is
no other course in this country at
present which means so much to the
successful entrant as the Los Angeles
Phoenix desert race.
At six minutes after 1 o'clock the
watchers. time keepers and judges just
outside the gate at the fair grounds
aI IHOSilA saw IL NiOud VI dhSLt
and a moment later the Buick shot
out of the dust cloud and the stop
watches snapped her time. The run
ming time from Los Angeles. deduct
ing the control at the Colorado river,
was quickly figured out and found to
be 10 hours and 13 minutes. Some faint
idea of the speed made by this car may
be obtained when 1t is considered that
the railroad time between the two cities
Is less than an hour shorter.
Perhaps the hardest luck of all was
that which followed #. C. Fenner and
Herrick In the Isotta- Fraschlni This
car at the river was but forty minutes
behind the Buick. 1t was an even bet
in Phoenix that Fenner would catch
the Buick before 1t got to Phoenix
that is, would make up the forty
minutes and win. The Isotta was the
first car out of Ehrenberg. as it was
the first car in. 1t left at 5:15 a. m.
yesterday The schedule time was
o'clock, but on account of the darkness
II was decided by the drivers of all the
cars at the river TO wait another quar-
ter OF an hour for daylight. Fenner
then started on his way to Phoenix,
followed fifteen minutes later by the
Nikrent brothers in the Buick.
Along the road from QuartZslte to
Salome the two cars passed and re-
passed each other. Whenever one
would stop for a moment to take on
oil or tinker up, the other would pass.
This was kept up for many miles and
then the Nikrent boys lost sight of
Fenner. The latter was reported from
the ostrich farm and then there was a
long wait at the fair grounds. Fenner
had met with serious trouble at Quartz
site. The Isotta struck a rock in the
center of the road and damaged the
earbureter From there on 1t limped
badly and little over a mile from
the finish line stopped altogether.
This is not an extraordinary thing
for the Buick to do. The Bucks hear
of a race anywhere. and the moment
the time is called there stand half a
dozen to a dozen of the white cars
ready to go against any cars. no mat
ter what their size or what their price
and the great thing that is worth
noting is the many victories that are
placed to their credit.
For the first time in many months
the Howard Automobile company of
this city has cars ready for immediate
delivery, and they are simply dupli-
Gates of the car that made the phenom-
email run to Phoenix.