Los Angeles herald., 1909-03-07
Echoes of the
SANGER Track

TT YOU want to get into a real quick
argument, very heated and crisp
Il like. you may get it at any hour of
the day or night at the local agency OIL
the Indian Motorcycle company by as
innocently as you like asserting the
impression that some one Is apt TO peat
lake" De Roster at the coming race
meet at the Coliseum tracks. From
that moment you will only be preserv-
ing natural laws of self-protection II
YOU prepare yourself to talk real LOUD
and make emphatic side talk with botn
hands. Manager Risden will make this
necessary for you, if it happens to be
he against whom you breathe your
modest impression, with soft pedal on.
If Risden doesn't happen to hear 1t, and
Freddie Huyck does, then the result is
a Risden rejoinder in miniature, but
eaqully as convincing. And, perchance
you happen to say it to Jake him.
self, then Risden, Huyck and all the
rest may please step back into the ma
chine shop, for Jake" will do the rest.
If you just happen to think that some
other cart, like the Reading Standard,
for instance, is a pretty good combina-
ton of tubing and driving power,
Jake" will accommodate you with
small bet of, say, $50 that it is only an
A. d. T. delivery wagon. Jake" means
1t. He isn't handing out any stage
money. He had to work for the money,
and doesn't care how quick you try to
take it away from him on that kind of
a proposition.
To be sure, there are a few other
scrubs in the business who chance to
know the difference between a crank
hanger and crown plate, who may
have happened to have sold a few thou
sand motorcycles in their day, who
have ridden behind the handle bars
when the throttle was wide open, and
when worlds records were being en-
dangered, who CHANGED to differ with
cake" They say he's spoiled; that
he has never had chance to be well
beaten. and that he is getting hours
nearer to an awakening every day the
sun comes up.
1t is this difference of opinion that
really spells a particularly bright and
successful speed event at the Coliseum
track, when that saucer track is opened
up next week for a three months meet.
may be able to buv controlling inter-
est in the Indian factory by the time
the meet is over, just according to
who is right.
The only flaw in Jakes program is
that he's playing himself against the
field, and the field is a mighty hard
equation to figure on. 1t always pos
sesses an unknown quantity, just like
any ordinary algebraic equation. This
unknown quantity may be the pro-
verbal old *" which may look some
thing like a cross drawn through the
name of Jake at the end of some race
when Jake least expects it. A field is
funny thing in any kind of a race,
and especially when the field happens
to be a field of motorcyclists and has
such really likely chaps as a Mitchell.
a Lingenfelder Turville, a Derkum,
Samuelson, a Duer, a Kreamer or IL
half dozen other cracks punched up
behind the favorite. all eager for his
scalp. 1t becomes funnier thing
when these cracks are all riding such
machines as the Reading Standard, the
N S. u, the Merkel and half dozen
other machines which have had no lit
tie thought devoted to their racing
qualities in bringing out the greatest
possible power, in striking best aver
ages in gears, in permitting the great
est possible revolutions of wheels with
the least expenditure of power.
There are only two things that vital
ly enters into the equation, but these
are vital enough to bid even Jake to
pause. One is the question of nerve, or
Headlines" and the other is the ques-
ton of speed capacity of machine. In
playing himself against the field,
Jake must ASSUME IIldI he udS llio
edge on both of these elements-that
the two vital essentials have been
brought together in combination-and
that is always debatable point which
competition on a real track will settle.
Not by one race but by continued
races. And, giving Jake credit for
being long headed, nervy heady, quick
witted, and giving him credit for rid
ing a machine of great capacity, in the
best of good spirit and with the best
of good intentions, Jake's friends
should whisper to him that he's taking
the wrong end of the bet, purely as 4
scientific study in odds.
A case in point was the bet made
last Tuesday at the track, when Jake
got down for $50, against an equal