Los Angeles herald., 1910-06-19
SELLING RACE MAY
END STOCK DECEIT
Marmon Car Maker Has Plan to
Force False Racing
Claims Out
ENTRY TO MEAN SALE OFFER
Machine Started in Contests
Must Be Parted With If
Buyer Appears

"How to define the stock car and
have stock car events for bona fide
stock chassis cars is one of the wor-
ries of the manufacturer, the promoter
and the sport loving public" declares
Howard Marmon Of the Nordyke &
Marmon company.
This is a worry of the manufactures
who really races his stock cars, for 1t
is impossible for even a student of the
game or technical expert to gauge
the material in a car under every con-
dition and determine whether or not it
is really stock, so that perhaps selling
races viii best determine, as the man
ufacturer who races the car he is SELL
ing the public would be protected
against the so-called stock cars that
do not fill these requirements.
II favor selling races If they can be
arranged, and am willing to have our
cars entered under these conditions,
which will prove that we at least are
following the rules as outlined by the
contest board and racing stock cars
That there are wany reasons why the
public should be skeptical about many
of the present so-called stock cars that
are racing there can be no denying,
as their examination at a race meet
naturally must be a character which
is more or less artificial. OF course,
1t is to be expected that the examina
tion will show that the cylinders are
of the necessary displacement, that the
parts are same as are purchased by
the public, but 1t Is impossible to tell
If the parts are chrome nickel steel
or some other specially treated pro-
cess when the manufacturer way not
be selling that quality to the public
and it is therein that fraud may be
easily practiced.
REPORTER HITS MARK
"At the recent Atlanta races one Of
the facetious reporters hit the mark
closely when he stated: There would
be more cars ready for the speedway
races but for the fact that the various
factories have not had time to pre-
pare their racing cars for the stock
chassis events
"If the cars are stock chassis why is
it necessary to have time to prepare
them? OF course, it takes time to
put a special arrangement to carry
fuel on a racing car and to pipe 1t for
such a process in accordance with the
rules, to build racing seats and other
features not on stock cars and to put
on several coats of special colored
paint which may designate a racing
car from the regular stock runabouts.
But this should be only a matter of
couple of weeks at the most.
II understand q manufacturer who
really is selling and overselling his
product has hard time selecting from
the cars ready for shipment half a
dozen which he can retain for his rae
ing team when there Is a daily de-
mand that he make shipments or can
eel orders, but still there should be a
limit even to this. So l say ten to
fifteen days should enable any factory
TO prepare for racing if that factory
desires to race with strictly stock
stuff, and l certainly would be willing
to have selling races under conditions
that we would have from two to three
weeks to run through new team cars.
/ would make the time much less than
that were it not for the fact that we
are often booked for two or three
meets in quick succession, and it would
be impossible, for example, to sell Har-
rouns car today If he had a meet to
attend in five or six days
WOULD SELL CARS USED
1--WE would desire time to use any
stock chassis and put 1t through In its
regular order, to paint and equip it
just as the car Is equipped we are
asked to sell. But we would be prov
ing it stock by selling 1t for It's cata-
logue price on say three weeks deliv-
cry, as we could not afford to have
special parts of quality different thAn
those that we use in our stock cars
embodied in our racers and then sell
them at the same price, so that am
willing to go on record for having
stock chassis cars and in selling them