Arizona republican., 1912-04-07
SPEEDWAY HAS
 NJ SLOW ORDER
Five Hundred Mile Inter national Sw eepstak s
 Promises Interesting Test at Great Speed; President Tells Why It Is Repeated
By CARL G. FISHER. CPresident Indianapolis Motor
 Speedway)

INDIANAPOLIS. April 6-DeVel- opment of the American made mo- to,. car is the chief reason why the mana cement of the Indianapolis Mo for Speedway decided to stage the e,cond annual 5OO-mile international sweepstakes race next May 90. Up until the time of the first 500-mile race last year motor cars had never been given a combined hlgh speed and endurance test in America, eN- cept for some of the longer events which had been held on the Speedway in previous years
 European manufacturers had been able to produce better cars for the reason that they could test them out over roads where a speed Of loo miles Der hour was possible because ol traffic conditions This never had been possible in America anu 7he only opportunity the maker had was to wait until time Of the race to lind ont what his car could do and how il would stand the strain, when the roads were cleared for ;he contest.
 The Speedway primarily was built to give the manufacturers an oppor- tunity to test their product at any speed they desired. Since that time American made motor cars have de- veloped until. instead of being consid- cred lightly when they compete against foreign cars. they are looked upon as formidable contenders and have proved that all they needed was an opportunity for development
 The first 50O-mile race, I believe was the greatest stride ever made in this direction, so the second should prove even greater. Makers who found defects in their cars last year have been the loudest in their de mand for a second race so that they could demonstrate the improvement in their product.
 No one before had experience with a contest of such length except in endurance runs and the element or high speed for such long distance never hal been tried out. so the event largely was experimental in eV- cry respect. Many of the manufac- turers who competed last year un- successfully have entered the second event. so they might profit by the additional experience and build cars which would meet the speed and en- y1urance requirements of such race. For this reason il is highly probable that out of the thirty starters in the next race a large per cent of them will finish in excellent condition. u is also very probable that the speed will be increased materially.
 Immediately following the firot
 
 We were besieged with hundreds of requests to repeat the contest Ill 1912. These requests came from eN- cry class of people who were inter ested in any way in the event. In mediate decision was not made a. the time, but, af.er the Speedway directors had thoroughly considered every other form of contest and com pared them with the 500-mile race, it was decided that the most satis- factory event which we could give to the public as an opener of the 1912 season in the North was a second 5OO-mile international sweepstakes.
 The success of the frs: race was in mart a reason for staging the sec onJ. for the expectations of the Speedway owners were fulfilled - every particular last year larger number of cars finished the race than we had anticipated. and the long con- test dil not work the hardship upon the drivers which it was feared would occur. Practically every man who finished the race was in good shape and could have gone farthe: if nec- essary.
 The crowd which attended the race was representative of every state in the union. and brought thousands of visitors to trade with Indianapolis merchants and manufacturers. The benefit which Indianapolis derived from the lace. both mediate and ac- cumulative, we believe to be as much of an argument in favor of holding aother event of the kind as any one other thir 2. The vast amount of ad- vertising matter which went to all parts of the world regarding the con- test advertised Indianapolis and put the Indiana capital on the map in many sections where it never had been known before to any great ex- tent. Thus the element of civic pride entered into the decision to hold second race. and the Speedway man. agement has done even more to ad- vertise tho race and the city this time than before. More than one million pieces of advertising matter have been sent out over the. country rel ative to the race and in this we have obtainei the cooperation of the mer- chants an1 manufacturers of the city.
 Another reason why we have de- cided on a second 500-mile event is that it will tend to keep Indianapolis before the motoring public as one of the great automobile centers of the world No other city is able 10 offer such a contest because of the lack of a properly equipped course to do so, and as long as we have the Speedway it should be made to serve several purposes. one of them being to boost the automobile status of Indianapolis.
 The other cliuchinP argument in