Los Angeles herald., 1909-05-17
DE ROSTER IS
THE CHAMPION
DERKUM UNABLE TO DEFEAT
THE FRENCHMAN
MADE MISTAKE OF STICKING TO
OLD MACHINE
Winner Sets New Worlds Records
for Twenty-Five Miles and Ten
Miles, but Fails in One

MllC
Jake De Roster is still the motorcycle
champion of the world. Despite all the
we'll intentioned plans of Paul Derkum
to take his honors away from him he
failed And yet, it was not Derkum.
Derkum has not failed in one instance
during all his efforts at the local
Coliseum track. His machine has
failed, time without number. Derkum
has gotten every inch of distance,
every unit of horsepower and every
second of speed out of his machine
every time he has ridden, yet lament
able as the fact is, he has not had the
machine that would deliver the goods.
And, retrospectively, it has not been
the machines fault. Derkum's machine
has been hastily assembled affair, put
on the track to meet machine that
has been undergoing a process of con-
struCtion as a racer for two years.
Derkum had a new machine yester-
day and should have ridden it in every
race in which he entered, as subsequent
events proved. But during the last
days of last week he got such splendid
results from his old machine that he
thought that he was flying in the face
of Providence-swappi horses in the
middle Of a stream-if he were to rele-
gate his old machine to the "has been"
class and take up with a new love. So
he stayed with the old love-and lost.
This Week Means Much
Had he given his new Reading Stand
ard another hour of hard work of the
kind to which he subjected it In his
try against the new worlds record
set up by De Roster a half hour pre-
ho uvOIIl1 have had
this specially built racer in such per-
feet attune as to place him on equal
terms with the doughty Frenchman
mounted on his redoubtable Indian. III
Derkum will only devote the coming
week to a gruelling workout of his
new machine he will give De Roster
the hardest race next Sunday afternoon
that he has ever been up against, conf
pared with which all previous races will
look like dress parade affairs.
De Roster not only successfully de-
Tended all of his old records, but, IN
cidentally though nevertheless en-
phatically, annexed two more world
records to his already fattened list.
These were the twenty-five-mile and
the ten-mile records. In the first event
he set up the figures of 21:38 3-5 and
in the latter he established the re-
markable figures of sos When it Is
realized that his twenty ve-mile rec
ord was hung up only after having run
the last mile or over on fiat tire, MS
performance will be appreciated in its
fullest sense. In setting up these new
figures he was compelled to travel the
distance in almost four minutes faster
time than that negotiated by Arthur
Mitchell four weeks ago on the local
Coliseum track on an N. S. U. machine.
Machine Goes Stale
In the ten-mile event Derkum for a
few laps was a we'll placed contender,
but his machine went stale about the
third mile and from that time on the
local daredevil was. out of it and for
the remainder of the day was unable
to show in the form that his friends
believe he will when he Is able TO put
his leg across the saddle of a machine
that will stay with him as long as he
will stay with the machine.
After De Roster had established MS
new twenty -five-mile record against
the watch Derkum essayed TO lower
the figures, using his new Reading
Standard for the first time during the
afternoon, Although stiff from lack or
tuning out, after five miles had been
negotiated the machine began to lin
her up, and at the end of ten miles
Derkum was but thirty seconds behind
De Rosters time and coming"
The crowd was just beginning to get
on the tiptoe of expectancy and was
cheering Derkum on to renewed efforts
when the fatalistic shutting off of his
engine was heard, and when Derkum
came to a stop he held at arms length
a broken chain which connected the
sprocket and rear wheel. The one
prominent feature of the accident was
the fact that Derkum had again
played in good luck. even though min
gled with hard luck, in not having
been thrown to a disastrous fall While
bringing his machine to stop, 1t be-
ing nothing short of miracle that the
tangling chain had not wound around
his wheels and brought his racer to
an untimely stop.
The amateurs furnished pretty
phase of the program. three exciting
races having been run by them in
which Bake was the invariabe win
ner and Graves, the heretofore unde-
feated local Simon Pure the invariable
third man. In match race between
Seymour and Bake the former trimmed
Bake, and a challenge for a five-mile
match between these two men imme-
ditaely resulted. which Seymour as
promptly accepted.
Six Protests Filed
Six machines were protested on the
ground of excessive piston displace-
menJ, ana THESE iildCHlueS are iOW NI
the White garage awaiting their Off
cial examination in the presence of
officials of the American Federation
of Motorcyclists and of representatives
of the manufacturers of the various
machines. The White garage was Sc
lected as a point Of safety because of
its entire immunity from trespassers.
thus insuring the strict protection of
the racers until this examination is
made.
De Roster first protested against the
Reading Standard ridden by Derkum.
Derkum was apparently loaded for this
protest, for he sprang three typewrit-
ten protests against the three Indian
racers at the track After the second
amateur race De Roster produced two
more protests against the Reading
Standard and the Thor machines, both
of which racers had defeated the In
dian, ridden by Graves
1t Is said that all protestants We're
really primed for the N. S. u machine,
formerly ridden by Graves. which won
the world mile record against the
watch two or three weeks ago. but the
managers of this machine did not Of
fer their machine in competition in any
of the days events, so that the pro-
tests, which had been made out in
blank previously. were filed out to
reach other contestants. The settle
ment of this much mooted question of
displacement will prove of great good