Los Angeles herald., 1909-10-14
COLUMBIA HAS
CUP RETURNED
PROTEST MADE THAT 0LDS
WAS NOT STOCK CAR
Burris Hill Climb Trophy in Hands of
First Winner, and the Royal
Tourist Is After 1t
Today

Now there's a state of affairs in auto
mobiledom. The cups that have been
flying about the air won by cars almost
daily running after yearned for prizes
are changing hands with precision and
without the formality of racing for
them.
The Burris hill climb cup, a very
handsome piece of silverware, by the
way, offered as perpetual trophy. by
the Burris Bros. for the twenty and
half miles of climb over one of the
hardest hills in California, is back
again sitting on the little Columbia
PAGER that turned the trick in 1:14:SO,
and thereby hangs tale.
Recently the stately and staid Olds-
mobile-not generally given to the
sporting spirit-not particularly en-
amored heretofore with the hilarity of
track racing or hill climbing, took
peek at the several cups that adorned
the showrooms and windows of its more
sportiye neighbors, gave herself up to
the merciless hands of the automobile
surgeon, who with barred arms merci-
lessly removed all the glitter and gold
off the exterior decorations, slowed
away the tonneau and horns and para
pfernalia generally that makes the per-
feet car that the Olds is when on
parade and in the excellent use of the
owner, and with grim tanks and
stripped chassis announced herself as
"out for some of these cups, too"
Santa Ana races wooed the good old
car to participate in the sport of So
mile jaunt around the mile circle first,
and then the lure of the shining silver
was too much for the Olds, and the
Burris hill climb cup was gone after,
and the time given as one hour and one
minute over the prescribed course to
the finish, which put the Columbia
the holder of the cup, and driven by
Harold Stone, accompanied by ms
mechanician, G. P. Illingsworth-to the
background by thirteen minutes and a
half. In the meantime something hap
pened to the Olds, for when the Royal
Tourist, also ambitious to have its
home decorated with this now famous
cup of the Burris Bros, went after the
cup last Sunday morning it is reported
to have found the OldS crippled with
cylinders blown up. OF course people
will ask questions, and the question
asked was How could car blow out
the cylinders or their heads coming
down a hill?" And then it was charged
that the Olds had compression plates
upon her cylinders to add to the power
of the engine, and this is taking away
from the car the title of being "stock
car" under the rules of the fellows that
make them. It must be a stock car to
compete for the prize, and nothing can
be added to a car nor the system
changed to comply with the terms laid
inexorably down for owners and drivers
by the powers that be.
AS this cup is given to the drivers,
Harold Stone protested the cup with
the Olds, as driver of the Columbia,
and lugged home the cup to his car,
where, as stated, it rests upon the little
machine that made the 1 hour and IA
minute run, but just how long it will
perch there is but question, for Billy
Mountain is hot after silver chest, too,
and the Royal Tourist this morning
either has captured the prize or tried
and failed, but the Royal is a powerful
car and should clip the Columbia's time
if nothing happens. The task Is hard
one, however, and those who attempt it
will find It Is no Broadway they are
travelling over when they tackle that
75O0 feet of climb.