Los Angeles herald., 1909-11-07
CARS START ON
LONG ROAD RACE
TEN MACHINES LEAVE FOR
PHOENIX, ARlZ.
STREETS JAMMED FOR BLOCKS
AROUND HoLLENBEcK
italian Racer Gets OFF First, and the
others Follow at Fifteen-Minute
Intervals Until After
Midnight
tCont,nued from Page One,


the Studebaker-a little car of very
light draught, compact in every way
and surgically operated on in the ma
chine shop until she has been declared
as eft as a fiddler" Latham is an old
desert rat, can scent the trail Of the
sands like a coyote, and Latham is
not afraid in the least to put his little
machine to the test as to speed, what
ever the results.
The Nfkrent brothers will man the
Buick, and Nick Nikrent is credited
with being the "man without blood In
his veins" He has his own way and
routes for going over the desert. What
others may do bothers not Nikrent nor
his brother. His old steel gray eye
never wavers for a moment. He
knows he is riding a Buick and that IS
enough for Nikrent Ask him what he
intends to do to Phoenix, and you get
the cold-blooded reply, Watch the
finish"
And then there is the plucky little
Doris, which has gone over the entire
road a number of times and has a
schedule made out that William Bosby-
shell, her driver, and the expert Dick
Harrison says cannot be beaten, ana
that the little Doris will make it with
ease and be ready to take to the race
track at the fair grounds as soon as
she arrives In the territorial capital
Harrison is a cold-headed man of cal
culations, as Is the owner of the Dorris
Billy Bosbyshell, and both are crack
a-Jack drivers.
FORD is DARK HORSE
The great guessing contest lays in
the Ford. The Ford is little bit or a
midget of a machine with wonderful
power and a past master at the wheel
in Roy Stearns, the local representative
of the Ford company in this city This
car is the puzzler for all the guessers
in the contest. The little car Is
equipped thoroughly for the run, and
she has splendid speed with a great
amount of power to drive the little car
at a pace that will make things dizzy
along the route. Stearns is a master
driver of his own car and knows her
from tire to bonnet
The stanch little Columbia Is another
puzzle The Columbia has done some
surprising stunts of late. She gathered
up some gasoline and oil and started
out one bright morning and went to
San Diego on a record breaking run
that established a new figure for that
coveted route of all automobilists. But
Bireley and Young are not much on
the automobile racing business, and 1t
was only at the earnest solicitation of
the driver and mechanician that they
were persuaded to allow the little Co
luIlpld 10 BO. ut 1Oluillbld tnIOSS al
very high reputation in the east as
car of endurance and capablity, and
~ construction has been frequently
mented on in mechanical circles,
= they have rested on these COM
.fidations rather than in the racing
sport.
AS to the wisdom of these questions
is a matter of individual conviction. II
will be scarcely questioned that such
events as the Phoenix run are matters
convincing to the prospective buyers
of automobiles as to the endurance and
capacity of the cars. Every day al
most individually owned cars are maxi
ing their way across the desert from
the east and covering precisely the same
ground that the racing cars that left
this city last night are to make, and
they make no ado about Ii at all. These
touring cars are not in the hands of
experts at all, as are the great stripped
and tuned cars that are making dare
devil time over the route to the terri
tory of Arizona, but are handled by
bankers, merchants in their home
cities, men of affairs and not of auto
mobiles Therefore, such events as the
Los Angeles-Phoenix runs are of prac-
tical and beneficial results to such
prospective buyers and have their
lessons.