The Washington herald., 1912-10-03

connuentiy expected 10 come socono-
Instead. with an angry-sounding roar
and snort Terrible Teddy TetziaR
plunged down the stretch
Mulford Ont of Race.
In three laps, about twenty-four miles,
he had overhauled and passed six con-
testants who had started ahead OF him
and was laundering around the course
at nearly seventy-five miles an hour.
Hughes, Wishart, Nelson, Clark, and
Anderson in turn raced past the stand
and then came a cry of fury from the
grand stand, where's Mulford? What's
the matter with Ralph? Where's 2I7?"
A positive babble of voices roared ques-
tion after question at the Judges stand
and a sigh of relief, withal of sympathy.
arose when II was announced: Null
ford is all right. His magnetic went up.
He's out of the race. but all right"
Just when the dashing young American.
in an all-American car, was promising
q remarkable race, he came to grief. This
left three American cars and four OF
foreign make in the race. The Stutz,
Lozier, and Mercer remained to hight II
out with a Fiat and three Mercedes
cars.
Nelson was the next man to get into
trouble. Just at the finish OF his four,h
lap he halted because of engine trouble
and never recovered.
Then one after another of the racers
were forced to stop until Anderson. Tetz-
l8ff, and Hughes only were maintaining
their course. Tetzlaff was laundering
along at terrific speed. Hughes Mercer
made less noise than any Of the other
cars, and always announced its approach
hy a softly purring sound in the distance.
Anderson in his Stutz was not going as
fast as the others. but was on the track
eli the while.
Tetxlnn Passes De Palma.
Still De Palma held his lead. but Tetz-
laff was slowly but surely creeping up.
AS they finished the eighth lap they were
almost neck and neck, driving desperate
ly. Unless something broke it was ap-
parent that these two would fight to
finish. The next lap settled 1t. As De
Palma approached the stand his mech
arician threw up both hands to signal be-
hind and whirled alongside of his pit.
One of his tires had been torn to ribbons
and TetZlaff flashed past in the lead.
After that Tetzlaff simply few, with De
Palma fighting hard to regain the lost
lead. By the time Tetzlaff completed his
eighteenth lap he had nearly overhauled
De Palma on the latter's seventeenth.
Not until the nineteenth lap did Tetz-
laff stop. Then, working furiously he and
en- gasoline, oil. and water, and whirled
away.
Lap after lap he reeled of until the
spectators believed he had the race won.
For the twenty-fourth time he roared
past the stand and then he disappeared.
De Palma came in sight and once more
nervous dread seized the crowd.
Tctzlaff Has Engine Trouble.
Terrible Teddy has been reputed a
daredevil driver and many feared that
he had been wrecked. Again questions
were hurled at the judges, and finally |
through a megaphone this was declared: |
'Tetzlaff is out of the race. His engine |
has gone up" According to other au- |
toists, the furious speed he was making |
melted a connection, and fifteen minutes |
ater, crestfallen. but smiling roughly, |
Teddy" was given a round of cheers |
rs he walked to the stand.
Then Hughes began to shine. De Palma |
was in the lead, but Hughes had had
less trouble. Purring loudly along the
track he was driving a terrific but con-
sistent race and slowly overhauling De
Palma. Slowly he crept up.
At the thirty-first lap he was few /
seconds behind and coming strong. De
Palma stopped for twenty seconds on
his lap and changed his front left tire
rhe rear tire was torn, but De Palma
would not take time to change II.
On the next lap Hughes was forty-four
seconds behind, and they held these rela-
i've positions for two laps. De Palma's
men in his pit held UP huge signs with
lis time and Hughes painted on them.
Then, beyond a shadow OF doubt, the
laring Italian began to take terrible
.hances at the corners. Hughes hung on
Ike grim death. De Palma's year tire
vas fiuttering in ribbons, but Try as he
would Hughes was unable to cut down
De Palma's lead more than one and one
Iuarter seconds to the finish.
From start to finish the race was
plendid. No records were broken. but 1t
vas one of the cleanest and most excit-
ng Vanderbilt Cup races ever run.