Evening star., 1912-10-03

MILWAUKEE,, Wis, October g.
Driving his Mercedes car for the race
distance of 1895 miles at the rate of
sixty-nine miles an hour, Ralph De
Palma yesterday won the eighth Van
derbilt Cup race, defeating Hugh
Hughes. in Mercer only three
seconds. Spencer Wishart. driving a
Mercedes car, was third fifteen minutes
behind Hughes. Gil" Anderson, in a
StutZ, finished fourth.
/ While the rate of speed for the race
fell far short of the record for the
event-74.07 miles an hour, made last
year by Ralph milford in a Lozier at
Savannah-the contest proved exciting
at all stages. Teddy" Tetzlaff in his
Fiat furnished the thrills for the first
half of the race, running away from
the field with comparative ease. He
made few tire changes. and his car
roared past the grandstand with a
lead Of seven minutes over De Palma
at the end Of the twenty-fifth lap. The
Fiat failed to show again, and later 1t
was announced that the car was out of
the race, connecting rod having
broken.
Fails to Shake Off Hughes.
De Palma was then only a little more
than two minutes ahead of Hughes,
with Wishart close behind. De Palma,
who had experienced miserable luck
with his tires set out to burn up"
the track and widen the gap that sep
arated him from Hughes. He found an
opponent worthy Of all of his atten-
tiOn. however, and try as he would he
could not lose Hughes.
Steadily the little Mercer crept up
fh1 hiykxr
sixth lap. with two more rounds Of the
course to go, the American car was but
thirty mine seconds behind the Ger
man speed creation. At this time
tire change for the Mercedes would
have lost the race. but the shoes held
and De Palma flashed by the finish line
a winner by forty-three seconds. hav-
ing slightly increased his lead over
Hughes in the last two laps.
De Palmas victory is a popular one, as
this young driver has a following as
great as that of his late comrade. David
Bruce Brown, who was killed here
Tuesday, while practicing for the
Grand Prize race. Nevertheless, most
markable performance of the Mer-
Ger car. which, pitted against ma
chine of much greater piston dlsplace-
ment, came within less than minute
of winning the most Famous American
road race.
Performance OF StutZ N Notable.
Much attention has been attracted by
the StutZ. which finished in fourth
place, defeating Fiat a Mercedes
and two American cars of much greater
displacement Anderson, the Stutz
driver, held his machine to a notably
consistent performance. making only
two stops, one for oil and gasoline and
the other for tire change.
The weather was ideal for racing and
more than fifty thousand persons wit
messed the contest.
The course had been much improved
since the recent postpOnement of the
meet and the drivers had little fault
to find with the roadway.
Rain Delays Today's Races.
A field of thirteen drivers prepared
their cars for the start Of the Pabst
trophy and Wisconsin trophy races, the
two events on the second days program
of the Vanderbilt cup automobile race
meeting at the Wauwatosa course.
At II o'clock, an hour before the days
races were to be called, there was a
heavy rain. Officials went into confer
ence and decided to postpone the start
Of the races until 1:30 O'Clock.