Los Angeles herald., 1909-11-01
ALCO PROVES TO
BE COMING FLYER
OF RACING TRACK
CARVED NAME FOR HERSELF IN
VANDERBILT EVENT
ESTABLISHES AVERAGE SPEED
OF e2.s MILES PER HOUR
BAD Scoring and Miserable Manage
ment Mar What Would Have
Been An Otherwise Good Race
to Disgust of 10000

The fifth Vanderbilt cup race was
won Saturday by Harry f. Grant, driY-
ing a sixty horse power Alec car, the
only six-cylinder machine in the race.
His time for the 27S.0S miles was 4:25:
AZ, an average speed of 62.S miles per
hour.
Edward H. Parker, driving a forty
five horse power Fiat, finished five min
utes and fifteen seconds behind Grant,
and William Knipper. driving forty
horse power Chalmers. finished at the
tail end.
The other cars, the Mercedes, driven
by Wishart. an amateur, and the Atlas,
driven by Knox, were the only ma
chimes among fifteen entrants for the
Vanderbilt cup which remained on the
course at the end of the race.
AS compared with previous Wander
bilt cup races, the contest this year
was reduced to ordinary stock cars, no
great racing machines, as in former
years. being entered. Although acct
dents to cars were numerous and ma
chine after machine was retired, no
one suffered any serious injury
The weather and road conditions
were unsurpassed. and optimistic re-
ports place the crowds at not less than
10000.
Poor management and lack of Off
cial Judgment marred the race from
beginning to end. One of the worst in
stances of this occurred just before
the finish, when it was suddenly dis
covered that the official timers had
omitted to credit Grants Alec with
it's twentieth lap. When he came
round on his twenty-first lap it was at
first recorded as the twentieth.
AS the Alec came in sight for the
twenty-second and final round the mis-
take was noticed and the score board
was hastily corrected. Grants name
was moved up from third place to first
and the starter rushed1out on the track
to wave the checkered flag which indi-
Gated that the driver had finished the
race.
Because of this hitch Grants victory
remained clouded for several hours
after the conclusion of the contest. 1t
was not until after a stormy meeting
between Mr.. Vanderbilt and the Off
cials that Grant was finally confirmed
as the winner.
The early part of the race was badly
muddled by the simultaneous running
of two lesser contests for cars of mod
crate power These smaller cars re-
manned on the course for ten and
fifteen laps respectively. passing and
being passed by the big cars and MAX
ing the task of the timers a puzzling
one.
The ffteen-lap race for the Wheatley
Hills cup was won by r. w. Harroun,
driving a thirty-two horse power Mar
mon, who completed the 1896 miles
prescribed in 3:1O:21 2-5. His average
speed was sos miles an hour.
The two best known drivers entered
in the Vanderbilt cup race-Lewis
Strang, plotting a Fiat, and Louis
Chevrolet, driving a Buick-were among
the first to be put out of the running
by accident to their cars. Strang came
to grief before completing his second
lap. smashing his radiator. Chevrolet
began well, rounding the 1854 mile cir
cult in 1857, but broken cylinder
forced him to quit the race in the fifth
lap.
The Alec. whose name is obtained
from her manufacture by the American
Locomotive works, is from one of the
greatest manufacturing plants in all
the world. The American Locomotive
works build all the great locomotives
for the Southern Pacific, Union Paclhc
and, in fact, the railways of the Unit
ed States and foreign countries. Into
the Alec car they are putting the same
class of materials out of which are con-
structed the monster moguls and great
passenger engines that annihilate space
at the schedule rate of seventy-ttVe
miles and more on the fast limited
trains Of the east. From this fact 1t is
more than reasonable to UNDERSTAND
that it is only a question of time till
they have in the Alec all the speed
that can ever be driven by an engine,
and the run of that car on Saturday,
winning, as she did. the classy Wander
bilt cup from old timers on the race
track, tells a significant story Of the
future where the Alec puts in her APP
pearance.
w. P. Book who is the representa-
tive in this city for the Alec, will have
an Alec demonstration here in two
weeks. and its appearance among the
cars of 1910 will create an intense sat
isfaction to buyers of a strong, fast,
we'll constructed piece of machinery.