Arizona republican., 1910-10-01
N|KRENT ARRIVES
 WITH HIS KNOX CAR
HAD AN UNEVENTFUl TRIP
 ACROSS THE DESERT.
Thinks the Road Is in Better Condition
 Than Last Year.

publican cup last year, -uTlNlnS l. BUICK machine, wheeled into Phoenix yester- day afternoon at 1:45, successfully ending his scouting trip for this years race This time he is driving 4O- horsepower Knox car and says it is his purpose to win the race again. ] There are something like a dozen oth- CT drivers who regard the conviction of MT. Nikrent with regret because they hate to see him disappointed, and each is individually confident that duty will impel him to take the honor from Joe But up to this time Joe has lit tie the best of it for he knows the road thoroughly and has one run to his credit
 Mir. Nikrent was accompanied by his brother Kenneth, young man who is visiting Phoenix for the first time. though another brother accompanied him as mechanician in last years race. The trip was fine one, say MT. Nix rent and was made without the slight est accident or trouble other than the shaking up of rough roads. They left Los Angeles Tuesday night and rolled to Banning, where they slept. Wed nesday they drove to Chuckawalla Wells and camped. Thursday they made Vicksburg and starting from there yesterday morning at o'clock they reached Phoenix at 1:45. Figuring up the driving time it totalled thirty five hours and fortyfive minutes, and that included the stops made for meals, for talking to those they met and the delays of road inspection. MT. Nick rent said they did not plan to reach Phoenix until sometime today, but everything went along so smoothly that when he reached the river he de- cided to drive on through without un- necessary loss of time. There was no effort at making a time record, as the purpose of the trip was to go slow and study the road.
 Speaking of the road, he said he be- lieved it to be in better condition than year ago. In a number of places the high centers in the road have been cut down by flood waters or something else so that good time can be made in some places where it was necessary last year to run very slow. But even yet the road is not a boulevard and the drivers all agree that it can still claim to be about the worst in the United States for the testing oS a machine. In that connection Nikrent recited an in- cident of year ago. when he made his first trip over the road; preliminary to the race.
 Tn going through San Bernardino he faced a street that had been newly paved, or graded, with broken rock, and decided to back off and go over some other street, not wishing to take a chance of tearing out his tires. But when he got into the Chuckawalla country and entered some really bad road, the San Bernardino thoroughfare was pictured in his memory as a vel vet carpeted boulevard. He had no trouble whatever with his tires on this latest trip and says that one of the tires on the Knox has already done 15,- 900 miles and looks about as good as any of them. The Knox machine he is driving is the same one he expects to make the race with and is a regular touring car, stripped down to racing equipment. with big supply box on behind With driver and mechanician and equipped as they came across the desert, Nikrent said the outfit would probably weigh $500
 Asked about the signs along the road, he said they are infrequent, though he saw several, but one might easily over look them. It would be a good idea for the benefit of the occasional tour ist across the desert to have the road we'll marked by signs, but so far as the race contestants are concerned it isn't worrying them. The careful driv- CT will go over the ground before the race starts and have a good idea of it, and part of the game is to know the road If a fast machine gets off the track and slower one passes the slow man who kept in the road would feel rather thankful that the pathway was a little doubtful.
 The Ehrenberg ferry this year, says Nikrent, will be about three-quarters of mile above the old one, which can not be used now on account of sand bars recently formed. A man living in Ehrenberg has bought land each side of the river at the site of the new ferry and will retain permanent crossing, putting up a cable over swift place in the river where bars will not be likely to form, and having beside the flat boat ferry, a motor to tow it over with floating docks at each side to make landing easy. MT Nix rent will ship his machine back to Los Angeles and ride home on the Pullman cushions. He says the desert road is fine one to win races over, but not