The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-10-31
VANDERBILT
 RACE A FROST Degenerates to Most Ordinary
 Affair. GRANTS CAR FINISHES FIRST Speed of the Winner Is a Great
 Disappointment. little Class shown and i50,oo0 specta- < tors witness Some Very Poor
 Sport at CIassic-Misunder-
 standing Msrs the Run

New York, Oct. so.--The fifth Van derbilt cup race was won t9day by Harry F. Grant driving sixty-horse power Alec car. the only six cylinder machine in the race His time for the PTS .os miles was four hours and twen- ty-five minutes and forty-two seconds. an average speed of 62. 8 miles an hour.
 Edward H. Parker, driving forty five horse power Fiat. finished second i've minutes and fifteen seconds behind Grant: William Knipper. driving for ty-horse power Chalmers-Detroit, was in third place when the race was de- clared ended.
 amateur. and the Atlas. driven by Knox. were the only remaining machines among the fifteen entrants which were still on the course at the end or the race. cup races, the contest this year, re- duced to the level of an ordinary stock car event. was tame and spiritless. The winners average speed. 62:s miles an hour, was a disappointment. Robertson in his locomobile last year made 62. 3 miles an hour.
 Although accidents to cars were nu- merous and machine after machine was retired by the failure of machinery or by disasters at some dangerous turns, no one. either contestant or spec tator, suffered any serious Injury. The weather and road conditions were un- surpassed, but the attendance was scarcely on a par with that at former vanderbilt cup races, the most optimis- tic estimates placed the crowd at less than 150.000.
 Peor Management.
 Poor management marred the race from beginning to end. One of the worst instances of this occurred just before the finish, when 1t was discoy- cred that the timers had not credited Grants Alec with its twentieth lap. When Grant came around on his twen- ty-first lap it was at first recorded as the twentieth. As he came tp sight for his twenty-second and final round, the mistake was noticed and the score board was hastil corrected.
 Grants name was moved up from third place to first and the starter rushed out on the track to wave the checkered flag. which indicated that the driver had finished the race. Because of this hitch Grants victory remained ciouded for several hours after the con- clusion of the contest. It was not .un- til after a stormy meeting at the Gar den City Hotel. between MT; Wander bit and the officials. that Grant was finally confirmed as winner.
 D. H. Parker. whog wasu at ths wheel of the Flat, tor which the timers nR@ by their thunder. awarded nrst position throughout the twenty-first lap demand ed a rigid Investigation of the scoring and timing methods. For whine Par ker threatened to. file an official pro- test on the ground that he had mate riaily reduced his efforts Curing the final minutes of the contest, through the mistaken impression that he had the race we'll in hand.
 In the shorter of small car races. the Massapequa sweepstake, Joe Maton driving twenty-five horse power Chal- mers Detroit, finished first, covering the I264 miles in 2:09:52 2-6. better than ffty-eight miles an hour.
 The fifteen lap race for the Wheat ly Hin cup was won by R. w. liar roun driving a thirty-two horse power Marmon, who completed the 1S9 6 miles in 3:I0:21 25. His average speed was 9S miles an hour.