Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-20
POPE-HARTFORD
CAPTURES RACE
BILL RUESS WINNER IN BALDY
CONTEST
WHITE STEAM CAR OVERTURNED
AND DISABLED
Time Of Hundred-Mlle Hlll-cllmblng
Event is Cut Half an Hour
by GasoIlne-Propelled
Automobile
tcontlnuea trom Pnre one,

fires showed where merry groups of
campers were spending a happy even
ing At some of these midnight
lunches were served and the aroma of
boiling coffee greeted arriving motor
lists.
NewhaIl Grade Crowded
Toward morning the number of ma
CHIMES increased until the headlights
illuminated san Fernando road from
Los Angeles to San Fernando
Newhall grade was the mecca of hun
dreds of laden machines and long be-
fore daylight almost every inch of
available parking space was occupied.
Shortly before o'clock sightseers be-
gan swarming over the hills all seek
ing a point where the greatest portion
of the course on the climb up the grade
could be viewed.
wild Bill" Ruess was a favorite
with many of the motorists, but each
driver had its hackers. Even while
the big steamer was lying mass OF
twisted wreckage two miles away sew
eral bets, one of them Of 500, were laid
that the White would win.
Long before those in the lower part
of the valley and on the surface of
the grade could see or hear anything
of the big racing machines the watch
ers on the mountain tops sent up the
cry Here they come!"
ApperSon First to Appear
First the big Apperson came roaring
up the grade. Hanshue was working
like a stoker turning the steering
wheel with mighty wrenches to keep
the speeding car on the course up the
winding and uncertain grade. The APP
persons speed up the grade and
through the pass was much greater
than that of his competitors. AS the
car Jackrabbit approached the pass
the exhaust doomed and reverbrated
through the narrow gulch and was
sharply re-echoed back from the rocky
peaks. The shouts of encouragement
were not heard by driver or mechani-
clan, but the waving hats of the crowd
that lined the sides of the pass were
seen only by the assistant, the drivers
eyes were oblivious to everything but
his machine and the course.
When the Apperson reached the first
sharp curve at the foot of the grade
the machine sWerved and rocked like
a channel ship in a storm. Hanshue
righted his craft and a shout went up
as he held it on the roadway and in
creased his speed. At the last turn
before the final dash up the pass,
Hanshue again ran perilously near to
the left~hand wall and his right rear
tire ground into the sandstone barrier,
while the hub-cap bit viciously into
the earth. This cost the Apperson
driver four minutes in time, because
the tire had to be removed a few min
utes after the racer had gone over the
pass.
Jaekrabbit Mounts Easily
Up through the gateway the Jack
rabbit mounted with scarcely a pause
at the last final strain. The soft sand
and dirt flew from beneath his drivers,
F,s,k Two, L,nI j
eners heard the roar and drum of the
exhaust in its last final BOOM then the
silence showed the big Apperson was
safely over and dropping easily down
the other slope.
Long before the White steamer
came in sight the morning breeze
waited the watchers a low plaintive
wailing cry that arose and then fell
away, to return a minute later louder
and more insistent, like the baying of
q tired hound on long trail Up the
einuous trail crept the sound of the
whining, complaining car. 1t was not
the sensational dash made by the APP
person, but in the White, climbing
comparatively slowly, the spectators
saw latent strength, a world of speed
and power.
The face of the driver told no story.
1t was the stolid face of the man who
ndQ COullu6HCB III his uldCuluB. Inc
machanician, however, had time to
wave his hand at the shouting crowd.
Happys smile also was a token of
confidence.
Up the grade crept the big steamer,
squealing petulantly, as if under cruel
goading. But the whine meant moth
ing to those who heard. They had
all seen the magnificent White gliding
silently over sleeper hills with not a
i H. 3,
parent effort. This was a racing ma
chine stripped bare with no idea Of
beauty or silence, guiding carefully
over the rougher places.
Keeps Close TO Corners
Seyfried held his machine close to
the corners and his track was in most
instances on the opposite side from
that made by the Apperson. over the
pass and down into that valley of si-
lence dropped the White and there
were few of those assembled at the
pass but believed the White was a sure
winner of the great race. Even as
they talked of the Whites ultimate
success on the long grind over the
desert and river ford, of its great re-
serve power for the last tremendous
effort, the magnificent machine was
wrecked by the roadside and driver and
mechanician were being carried
bruised and bleeding, from the scene of
their heartbreaking disaster
Here comes Wild Bill" was tho
cry from the watchers on the highest
pinnacle over the pass. It was echoed
down to the waiting throng. The
Pope Hartford came steadily up the
grade. Ruess did not look or live up
to his rather sensational name. He
was more like a locomotive engineer
with his eyes on the track and his mind
on his schedule. A blackboard was
held up in front of the drivers face
He gave swift glance at the sign,
which read "a S02 w 1885,"
Another glance at the clock and a
feeting smile of confidence passed over
his face. It was to Ruess a solved
problem. He knew to a second what
his competitors were doing; knew
what they could do, and, what was
more important to Bill, he knew what
his own car was going to do.
A moment later and the Pope-Hart-
ford mans mind was drawn from what
other cars might be doing to troubles
of his own. The Apperson and the
White had made deep gullies where
their mighty wheels had torn up the
sand in the approach to the pass. At
the last pitch the racer struck a hidden
boulder and bounded into the air The
wheels spun around and the car almost
completely lost its traction.
Again and again did Ruess seek