Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1909-08-23
AUTOS ARE SPEEDY
Swift Pace Shown by Machines
at the Davenport Mile
Track.
CONTESTS INTERESTING
Petersen in POpe-Hartford wins II
Leading Event but Later sue
cumbs to Buck in a harmon.

Yesterdays automobile races at the
Davenport mile track under the aus
pieces OF members of the Davenport
Automobile club were the most sue
cessful yet held in which only ANA
teurs and local talent participated. TIE
leading event. a 10-mile contest be-
Pete Petersen of Davenport and {.
Pieronnct OF Clinton. was not as inter
esting is anticipated Pieronnet did
NOT take part. ewing, it is said. To ob-
jectiors of his wife, who became
alarmed after reading of the accidents
last week at Indianapolis and wired
her husband implcring him not TO en-
ter Pete Wilson of Clinton took his
place. The other events. were gener-
ally well contested.
Two Minor Accidents.
There were only two accidents ana
they were of minor nature. Irwin
Schmidt of Davenport in the free-fc"-
all motorcycle race ran into project
ing board in the fence and was throwa
He sustained bad sprains of the wrist
and ankle and q number OF bruises
HIS machine was totally wrecked. Gus
Scheppers of Moline while warming
up for the o0-mile race. struck the
fence in todging a dog that ran across
the track and damaged his mount 50
that he was unable to repair it in tim"
to take part The 20-mile race. which
came last on the program. was there
fore run by ]. NJ. Myers on his two.
cylinder Indian without opposition.
the time being "a: 80.
The feature of the day was the five
mile free-for-all auto race. There were
three starters. Guy Bear of Muscatine
in a Pope Hartford. Pete Petersen -
Davenport in 4 POpe-Hartford. AMI
Emil Buck of Davenport in a Marnon.
Bear lost his head at the start AMI
nearly stalled his engine. losing a quar-
Ter CT a lap before getting away. Peter
sen claims he was started before mis-
engine had been speeded up and So
the harmon got a good lead. Peter
sen. however made gains in the first
two miles and il was an exciting con-
test In the fourth mile however.
Petersen had dropped behind two city
blocks and he quit and protested %
The judges on the ground that he hal
a bad start The judges at first de-
clared the race a no contest but later
after the Marmon had defeated born
the Pope Hartfords in time test. an
nounced that owing to the lateness Of
the hour the contest had been awarded
10 the Marmon.
IT.
Buick. won the fve-mile race for
cars costing less than $500 from
Johnson of Clinton driving a Moline.
There were 5000 people in attendance.
Automobile Summaries.
The summaries of the automobile
events follow:
MATCH RACE. 10 MILES. PURSE
$500.
Pope-Hartford tPeterscn) frs! :;
Buick tWilsonD second: best time,
1877 1-2
FREE-FOR-ALL. MILES.
Marmon tBuck) first Pope-Hartford
tBearl second. Pope-H Hartford peter
FOR CARS COSTING UNDER $500,
MILES
Buick (Wochner) first. Moline
Dohnson) second: best time. 7:OS.
MILE AGAINST TINE.
Marmon (Buck) time :07 10: Pope
Hartford Bean 1:0S 30: Pope-Hart-
ford CPetersen) LOS 4-5; Petrol
tBrown) TIA
Motorcycle Summaries.
The summaries in the motorcycia
events follow:
AMATEUR FREE-FOR-ALL. MILES.
Indian BARR first, Pierce (ZoecH-