Arizona republican., 1912-06-10
JOE DANSON'S
 RAGE STORY
Winner of Indianapolis 800 Mile Sweepstakes Tells How It Was Done ne-Don Herr, Relief Driver, Was of Wonderful Help.

Joe is a quiet boysh young man full of life and fun but capable of serious reasoning and never exceeds | the speed limit in his life habits. He is Y NJ C. \. member and a
 constant attender. With his cnor- nous prize, $&5oo0 won in the 800 mile race at the Indianapolis Motor i Speedway last Memorial Day driving a National ear. Dawson still lives at lis Indianapolis home
 Here is his own story Of the worlds greatest speed battle.
 "A man to win in any race. must l know his gait"
 -DePama. who drove his marvellous 1 European car. the Mercedes. which las twenty per cent greater piston displacement and costs fabulously more than my car, put up wonder ul fight for first place. DcPalma is d great driver, but when all the 1 cheers die down and the smoke clears laWay the cold fact remains that his car was not capable of going 500 1 Im.les 1t a winning speed and my ear I did l was eHelr compelled to do two extra laps. 2. miles each, after had won the race just for good measure ! to avoid any chances or mistakes in counting
 II can tell what won tue race. as lit was combination of things that ! decided the victor in this. the great est test of man and machine ever l Iheld sinc5 machines of any kind have 1 been built. My record of 800 miles ] in 3Sl minutes and 6 seconds stands | as a record for any kind of mechan- 1 ism for that distance No other man i alive has traVcled that far aS fast as | I did | do not boast about it, but ] simply call attention to the fact that |of all the big powerful expensive cars 1 driven by drivers as experienced as l | am. only one won first place. V was the verdict of the white heat l test
 T was greatly assisted by Don Herr who relieved me at the wheel for al- most 90 miles while l rested in the repair pit Instead Of watching the race while ! was resting and instead Iof ketpinS myself in a nervous strain. 1 I flung my tired body onto the grass and relaxed entirely. I shut my eyes and tried not to hear the noise of the cars roaring past on the track. Then when l went back into the fray l was Imuch rested Of course the car never bad a rest. but my body is not made lof vanadim and chrome uicklc steel hike the car iS. I am just human, From past experience I never give iup hope until a race is over. l knew | DePalna was driving d wonderful race ahead of mo and just behind me came my next closest rival. There | was wedge between two foreign cars But l am proud to say that l did take orders from the manager of the National team from the repair pits. ] got d signal along toward the latter part of the race to slow down my speed I really did not want to. because I was confident that my ear icouId stand the pace I was going but II obeyod and dropped from eighty to Iscventy miles an hour. It was not long after that when I got the signal to let her go" That was the time Ithat DePalma's car began to go to Ipieces. I then began to go at the
 rate of S7 miles an hour. If l had never slowed down at all I could have broken the record easily much greater than I did. No ] was not so
 tired My arms and shoulders were
 rather sore, but the ride was not tire
 some The mental strain was tn,
 hardest part. I had to keep a clos,
 watch all the time for fear some
 other car ] was passing might crash
 into me. My car was not repaired
 any no water was put in the radiator
 but three spark plugs were replaced
 I wish I could run the race oveI
 again and I would certainly drive