Evening star., 1909-07-18
A DREAM OF THE
AUTO SPEED F|END
Herb LytIe Tells of His Desire
to Go the Limit-Has
Found the Place.

NEW YORK, July 11.-"Herb" Lytie,
the noted track and road driver. after Il
visit to the Indiana polls Motor Speedway.
says 1t is the dream of the racing driver
VINO pilots fast racing cars TO obtain
the highest speed from his racing ma
chine, and this is a dream that he nurses
in vain.
Where is it possible to realize his WISH
And as Lytle put this question, no answer
came trippingly to the tongue. Surely.
said the daring driver. who has driven in
races in this country and abroad ''it is
not possible to get the limit of speed over
any road or beach in this country
Many say that Florida is an ideal
place for racing, and SO it is. but there
are many reasons why ii is not perfect
In the first place it depends to a great
extent on the winds as to how the beach
will be, as a north wind causes the tide
to go out, leaving a series of ridges, and
it is impossible to attain high speed under
these conditions.
The Tide Interferes.
Then there is the tide. 1t Gibbs and
flows so as to give you racing surface
only at certain periods of the day, these
at best being OF short duration. And
when you are on the beach racing You
have straightaway that necessitates q
turn at each end that is difficult almost
impossible, | might say, to make at even
a fairly fast clip, and across the course
the people swarm that you have TO be
constantly on the alert to avoid them |
remember only too well the accident that
happened TO Croker, when he was killed
trying TO dodge a motorcycle that was
on the beach ahead of him. This and
other cars passing you in an opposite di-
rection makes it far from the dream OF
the speed fiend that he has a course
where 1t is possible to attain the highest
Snan6 "a mos
"A mile track will not produce the
necessary result The turns slacken your
speed so much so that about seventy-five
miles an hour is the limit at which it is
possible to travel.
And what of the great road courses
that road racing has made famousEthe
Grand Prix, the Gordon Bennett the
ParisMadrid and many other racing
courses? l have seen many of them. in
fact. raced over the French course of the
Gordon Bennett. while / have driven rae
ing cars over several of the best Amer
lean courses.
Take the Savannah the Vanderbilt
Cup course, the Briarciiffe and the Crown
Point and Lowell courses. Along certain
parts of most of them great speed is pos
Sible, and then come the turns; they are
generally numerous and sharp. This
means a great loss of speed. Another ele-
ment which causes the driver to hold his
car always in restraint is the dread that
at any moment some one will cross the
road. and this Is common happening
No matter how well a road is policed
twenty-five to thirty miles is a long
stretch to watch. So that the dream OF
excessive speed passes away and the
driver can only long for the ideal course
and hope that some day he will see it.
Il have thought this for years and
finally gave up hope of the realization OF
what have longed for.
At Last, Oh, at Last!
But have at last found such course
I have at last seen It, and now / plan To
drive over its surface, and do s. al the
highest possible speed that the car which
l pilot will travel
The indianapolis Motor Speedway is
certainly the greatest race course in the
world.
THE track is large enough to travel at
the limit of speed while the turns are
we'll banked and gradual. so that they
will not slacken up the car that travels
around their speedy surface. No dust TO
blind the driver. and more important still.
a track on which ii will be unnecessary
to dread the spectators. as every inch or
II can be properly policed.
Il will certainly take part in all the
events that take place there this season.
and am glad TO be numbered among
those that will make up the speedway
team"