The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-07-04
By WILLIAM ALLEN JOHNSTON.

Copyright, 1909. by the New York Herald
Co. All rights rcserved,)
Gear coming"
That cry, say the racing chauffeurs
is the inspiriting note of race, the
one vivid, thrilling human element tt
the long, grim, colorless, breathless
plunge.
The driver sees nothing save that
contracted funnel of speed before him
with its dull, blurred outlines; he hears
nothing but that cyclonic roar Of
cloven air and now and then a weird
scream from the gears or the piping
voice of the exhaust.
His whole muscular self is concentrat
ed about the steering wheel, which, be-
cause OF the gyroscopic resistance of
the whirling wheels is rigidity itself
All Of his senses, all of his keenest SYM
pathies are wrapped up in that steel
made and animal-ike thing under him.
He becomes merged with it, part of
ii, half mechanism himself
"Car coming!' The mechanician
may shrek the warning in his ear or
he may catch the sullen, booming cry
of the crowds But it IS real, human,
vital. He can t look back. Instead he
bends forward for a mighty rush, and
switches on his highest speed gear A
creepy sensation travels up him and
is after him-a fat bellied, wheeling
luggernaut, chasing him, gaining on
him
He has all the tumult of the hunted
animal-fear, vague but awful; then
desperation, abandon; now its passion,
mighty, sacrfcial, He must win, at
any cost, win by any means-just win,
win.
They tell of Jenatzy, the mild man
nered, soft spoken, blinking German
driver, who in the crisis OF his everv race
becomes very demon Of fury. In the
Gorden Bennett race in Ireland he was
caught between some swift pursuers
and car IN front which impeded his
progress. During the first stop at Car.
low Jenatzy leaped from his car and
was pitching blindly toward the Amer.
lean driver with hand appraised and
screaming: IN kill him I'll kill
him!''
Says Jarrott, who was Ono. ~ in
the great Paris Madrid race, speaking
OF his after impressions:
"What do ] remembers Bevond all
chat horrible feeling OF being hunted.
Hundreds of cars behind me, OF all |
sizes and power, and all of them at
my heels, travelling over the same road, |
perhaps faster than l, and all striv- |
ing to overtake me-
Even at the start the remembrance
r.
sallles, all waiting to receive the sig
nal TO dash after me- weighed me down,
and as we sped on and they did not an
pear the strain became worse and
worse, i have sympathy now with the
hunted animal. For once in my life !
was hunted.
Being Hunted.
'Of all the impressions Of that wild
iush 10 Bordeaux-the long, never end h
CIV als
the horizon; the holding of a bullet di, |
recteo to that spot in the skyline where
earth and heaven met-of all these that i
awful feeling of being hunted was the
most VIVID and lasting, and having ey
Perenced 1t L do not wonder that No.
mas never won race -
Others speak of this same feelino IN
the same way. Perhaps it stands ont vt
SO clearly IN the mind because, strange
as III may seem, IT is one Of the very
1eW senses of fear the driver exneri
fences. That agonizing thrill of help
iessness oceasioned by sudden skid
ulpg comes under the same category.
rethaps' again: these strange motions
are VIVID and lasting because in all that
long mechanical drive they are the only
really human notes. I am inclined to
TINS explanation, though it may seem
somewhat mystic in character
In race the high speeded car be-
comes halt animal. Just so tie driver
becomes half mechanism. Tho two
grow into a single unit, sort of mus.
ccular mechanism if you will, waking.
Ieeling, almost breathing in common.
Ihen. suddenly, the brain, still human
IS stirred by an earthly emotion, and
very clearly, very deeply it registers
that emotIon-for instance, the fear of
being hunted
Most drivers come out Of a race, they
say, with little realization that they
nave actually experienced it. You ask
them how they feel and they look DULY
at you; you ask for their impressions 7
and they reply vaguely p
a thousand and one incidents are
crowded into race-a hole in the road il
TO be avoided. dangerous turn. q dark G
spot that looks hike 4 shadow but NAV &
be bad depression, protest from the f.
engine, the rattle of broken gear, the b
eputterlng Of red hot ignition plate. a
me swapping Of feed pipe. They are G
countless-these mechanical and road "
detalis-and, vital os they are, they sue VI
eeed each other with such incredible
rapldlty that the brain scarcely regis n
ters each one before another relpaces o
it.
The action of the brain is abnormal. e
IKE the parachutist's 's in a fearful fall g
that seems eternity but lasts only W
fraction Of a minute, and it grows he a
numbed with the swift transit Of i'm o.
pressions
During all the hours Of the race the ci
driver lives in tiny elongated world So
OF his own-that interminable funnel n
Of speed: His mind becomes the en- a
gine's, the car is his own body, At OF
the end and for hours afterward he OF
sees and thinks only of that blurred
rush. 1t is painted upon tho retina Of p
ms eyes when he seeks his pillow and q
closes them. C
Tracy Sees His Race. "
Some weeks after a Vanderbilt race