Los Angeles herald., 1909-02-21
LOCOMOBILF IS
READY TO RACE
|. A. MOTOR CAR COMPANY IS
AFTER STEARNS
WILL WAGER FIVE THOUSAND OR
MORE If WANTED
Race Must Be Five Hundred Miles, on
Any Track or Road, Professional
Drivers Barred, Under Aus
pices of Dealers

r. j. Leavitt, manager of the Los
Angeles Motor Car company, the local
agency for the Locomobile, since his
return to his post after two months of
illness, has definitely determined to set
at rest all discussion which has been
current the past two weeks regarding
whether the Locomobile has the speed
and endurance qualities of the Stearns
car. There has been no little talk on
the part of the Stearns agency to the
effect that they were willing to wager
good money to prove that their car
could outsprint the Locomobile, this
talk going so far as to express a will
ingness to put up $1,000 as an earnest
of their ability to beat the car whose
colors carried first and second honors
across the finish line of the famous
Vanderbilt race of last year.
For the first time yesterday Mr..
Leavitt allowed himself to be quoted
as TO where the Los Angeles Motor
Car company stood in regard to the
def from the Stearns quarters.
You say for the Los Angeles Motor
Car company" said Mr.. Leavitt, that
we are willing to put a stop to this
money. My company has therefore de-
termined to make a public offer through
The Herald to the Stearns people to
meet their car in a race under condi-
tions which they ought not to be afraid
to meet.
I'VE will post $4,000, or any amount
above that figure, whether $4,000 or
even more, that the Locomobile, with a
strictly stock car, can defeat the
Stearns car in speed and endurance
race. to cover 500 miles or more, the
only bar imposed being that no pro-
fessiOnal drivers, like Soules, shall
handle either car.
1--WE will insist, in the event Of this
wager being accepted, that the race
shall be strictly under the auspices of
the Automobile Dealers association of
Southern California, and that that as
StearnS people and their hackers want
ity of inspecting both cars rigidly to
prove that they are strictly stock
I'VE do not impose any condition
regarding track or road. They may
pick out the toughest road they want
to, or may select any race course.
We are willing to race ever any kind
of road that may be named, so long
as we know that the other car must
go over it also.
1--WE impose a condition of 500 miles
or more because we want to demon
Strate dehnlteIy the two quantities that
would be brought into issue between
the two cars-speed and endurance
Any car can make a good race for 100
miles, but 500 miles is a different thing
/ shall drive the car most of the dis
tance, if not all of it, so the date of
the race would have to be fixed for
such time as will permit me to entire
ly recover from my recent long illness.
I am not yet steady on my feet; 1
am still a bit weak, and my nerve
hasn't fully returned. That is nerve
to run race. But have enough nerve
to back my car with my money, and I
don't care how high they go. 1 have
been urged to go into this matter, and
have been assured that there is all
the Locomobile money that will be re-
quired to meet any wager that the
Stearns people and their backeds want
to put up"