Los Angeles herald., 1909-04-18
RUESS MAKES A
MAD NIGHT RIDE
SETS NEW RECORD TO SANTA
BARBARA
COURTS DEATH AT EVERY TURN
OF THE WHEELS
Runs the 1909 Miles in Three Hours
and Thirty-five Minutes, After
Losing Twenty-four Min
utes Along Route

bill" Ruess set the automobile race
fiends of Southern California new
mark yesterday that will give them all
something to thin kabout and ponder
over, by establishing a record of
hours and rs minutes between Los An
geles and Santa Barbara, distance of
109 miles by actual speedometer regis
ter, in one of the widest kind of a
night rides behind the wheel of a
Pope Hartford car, for which he is
Southern California agent. :
Ruess left the Lankershim hotel at
promptly II o'clock Saturday morning,
in a rive-passenger runabout, with
three other occupants, and at exactly
1886 o'clock a. m. drew up in front of
the Hotel Potter in Santa Barbara,
where he registered the hour in the
presence of Will Palmer, the night
clerk, and the hotel porter.
The other occupants of the car were
G. M Adair and H. w. Curtiss, sales
and Bert e. Patnoe, tire expert rep
resenting the Diamond Rubber COM
pany, who equipped the. car with tires.
Knocks Off Twenty-Five Minutes
The new record established knocks
twenty-five minutes off the old one,
which has stood since March, 1906, and
which was also held by Ruess, but won
with another car than the Pope Hart
ford. Remarkable as tbs record is, the
fact still remains that it would have
been even a better one had not three
serious delays occurred which resulted
in a total loss of twenty-four minutes
en- route.
Ruess' companions in the car were
enthusiastic in their praise of Ruess
driving and assert that there Is not
man living in the United States today
who can take the same car, or anyoth-
or car, and equal, much less exceed,
the record made, conditions being the
same.
1t is said that it is impossible to con-
ceive the wild character of the ride.
Starting in inky darkness, with two
acetyline lamps and searchlight to
pick the way, the first ten miles had
not been negotiated before the two
lamps were put out of commission and
nothing left to light the dangerous
road but the single searchlight.
Danger at Every Revolution
With this handicap placed upon them
at the very conception of the mad ride.
through mountain canyons, up and
down steep grades and through desert
like sands, with danger lurking at
every turn and beyond every little rise
in the hill, these four desperate riders
plowed into the intense gloom with but
bare few feet look ahead from which
to pick the safest course.
1t is the veriest miracle that the car
and it's occupants were not catapulted
against a deserted wagon, filled with
household furniture, left midway of
the road at the bottom of the Reseda
grade, and, as il was, the car was
hurled by Ruess into the side of the
embankment to stop it's onward rush
rather than to meet the impact against
the wagon. resulting in the damaging
of the tenders and the running board.
While much of the distance was over
steep grades, not permitting of better
than twenty or twenty-five miles an
hour, there were a number of limited
stretches where the speedometer
showed a speed of. sixty-fve miles an
hour, one instance being along the
splendid boulevard just before enter
ing Ventura and another at the sub
urbs OF Santa Barbara, where the road
was much rougher, but sufficiently
safe to permit of great speed.
The car left the Hotel Lankershim
o nthe stroke of midnight and proceed
ed out Seventh street to Vermont and
thence down this boulevard to Holly
wood At Hollywood the left hand
lamp bracket broke from vibration and
seven minutes were lost in removing
the lamp, necessitating the shutting
off of the side lamps. Despite this loss
Calabasas was reached in forty-five
minutes and Ventura in two hours and
five minutes. At the bottom of the