The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-04


 patched at TO miles an hour. Important
 factors these mechanicians, though little
 known or regarded by the public. More
 daring than an ordinary engineer, for
 they can see the approaching peril and
 must sit qulescent, trusting wholly to the
 driver. When the rear tires of Greiner's
 car exploded on the 12th lap and crushed
 to death & P. Dickson, mechanician, be-
 meath it's overturned mass, nothing but
 his bare name could be learned by the
 eager newspaper men.
 Each car has its own pit mot really
 pit at alb where grimy pitmen wait to
 change tires and pour oil, gasoline, or
 water into the emptying tanks. Seconds
 count in this and pitmen, drilled until
 they can shift a tire in less than 15 sec
 onds, may help to win or lose the race
 Harrouns Harmon, the winning car'
 stopped only four times in the 500 miles,
 while Mulford's Lozer stopped Il times
 Yet these two and Bruce Browns Fiat
 which came third were within 50 seconds
 of each other at the finish.
 But the driver 1t is who bulks large in
 the public view. Crouched in his car he
 sits, bending slightly forward like an
 aimed arrow: his left hand rests on the
 steel driving wheel, guiding the power of more than 50 galoping horses; his right hand clutches the emergency brake, po- tent to curb and stop those 50 horses at 1 will. His feet play on the clutch as an organist plays on the pedals of his pipes. No weak man can hold that wheel or can tread that clutch for 300 miles. Ever the wheel must shift, shift. shift and each shift translates itself into more than l 90 feet a second. No time to think is al 1 lowed: action and reaction must be i'm mediate. When Jagerburger's car broke l a knuekle joint, hurled Wood, it's mech anician. into the middle of the track, and began a dance of death in front of dozen crowdng cars, there was no time to think Close behind, Harry Knight, 1 in his Westcott, threw himself desper' | ately on the wheel. Car and man he | grazed by a hairs breadth, but ruined his
 own chance of winning. Carried on by it's impetus his car went catapulating
 broadside down the track, sweeping
 Lytles Apperson and Hearne's Fiat be-
 fore him for a hundred yards and whelm- ing them all in a tangled mass. while through the passage thus cleared thun- dered the following cars. l As in all races the spectacular features were at the beginning and the end. The 1 acidents were not spectacular. lhey could not be. The track was too large, | the distances too great. The huge | motor cars, dwarfed by their speed, | l seemed almost toyllke as they whizzed around and around and around. Even when the three cars were piled together in the great though almost harmless crash of the day, there was nothing spectacular to be seen In pile or crumpled iron hundreds of yards away, Thrilling enough, horrifying enough, per haps, it was to those who could imagine what that mass of scrap might hide; but not spectacular.
 But the start was superlative. Far away to right and to left in a great curve stretched the broad speedway, bordered by banks of seats, tier above tier, filled with 100000 people, gay with tossing flags, roaring with cheers. The drum ming bands, soon to be drowned by the roar of the motors, the electric contaglon l that goes with great crowds. and the im- pending threat of lowering death set the l pulses of the dullest looker-on a-qniver. One by one the cars came out and cir
 oled the track In them sat almost every
 driver of note in all Amreica, and each, as he passed was wildly cheered. Johnny Aiken, in a National blue car tan Indian apols car and an Indianapolis driyer) got, f the first and loudest greeting. Next fav- i orite was Ray Harroun, in another h. dianapois built car, the yellow Marmon, whose long tail has earned it the name of the Wasp. Spencer Wishart In the grey, squat Mercedes Gamous because l of the novel "The Lightning Conductor" which was written about it) also got many a hand. Bob Burman, who has travelled a mile faster than any human being ever did and lived and who an hour before had been crowned speed king of the world, brought up the rear in his Benz, and the crowd went wild as he passed
 Each car as it came back from its circle fell into line with the others, in eight ranks, five abreast. and 50 feet apart. Most of them were bright colored-red or blue or yellow. At one end of the first rank was a red and gray Case, and at the other end dark blue National. Farther back were two white Loziers, squat 1 Mercedes, two yellow Marmons, two yell low and blue Mercers, a green Cole. a dark-red Fiat, and many others. All were chugging and trembling and pro- testing, vomiting gasoline vapor rent by spurts of fire. The 15-minute bomb explodes high in the air. Five minutes later comes an- other, followed by minute bombs. As the last is fired the spacemaking car at the l left of the line surges forward. Round the ellipse it leads the serried ranks of giants As it comes back down the stretch it quickens its speed and draws
 aside. The flag drops, and with a roar | of throbbing engines and of whirling
 wheels the ranks dissolve, strnging out
 almost in an instant into twisted mile
 of leaping, panting, exploding monsters,
 smoke-breathing, fiame-enveloped.
 The nearly seven hours of the race have
 begun. The workers at the great score
 boards bulletin the numbers of those who
 lead at each ten miles of the course The.
 assistants keep very bad tally on the laps
 that each car makes. Later, tires begin
 to burst and one car after another limps
 to it's pit and spends there some of the precious minutes that means miles Hun dreds of amateur mathematicians do sums upon their cuffs and find that the pace is 70 to 75 miles an hour, a speed that the survivors maintain till the end
 After a while excitement flags. Pur- veyors of sandwiches and soft drinks reap a golden harvest. The sun decides to