The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1912-06-06
DAWSON WINS
YOUTHFUL DRIVER TAKES OFF
FIRST PRIZE IN 5oo-MlLE
AUTO EVENT.
CAR AFTER CAR SMASHED
ps Palma Leads Until Near Finish,
When Accident Spells Chances.
No Fatalities This
Year.


Year.
Indianapolis, Ind, May 31.-A brok-
en- connecting rod of mass of flying
steel and spectacular burst of speed
by the boy among the racing auto
drivers turned hopeless chase into
. dramatic race at the Speedway Dec
Dration day.
In the last ten minutes of the race
Joe Dawson, the 23-year-old driver of
the No. National, snatched $4,000
from the grimy hands of Ralph De
Palma, who for 1876 miles had sent
the mighty Mercedes around the
packed brick oval at a speed of over
30 miles an hour.
If ever hard luck story was chron-
lcled, the story Of De Palma's defeat
is one. The intrepid Italian went to
the front on the third lap Of the nerve
wrecking grind and kept that pace for
more than six monotonous hours,
breaking record after record in his
mad fight. His lead was never seri-
ously challenged until as he swung
in the stretch after circling the track
for the 496th time his engine played
him false. He was travelling on one
cylinder as he limped over the line
with only three more laps to go. Daw-
son was five laps behind.
Dawson covered the 200 laps in
e:2:06, an average Of 1872 miles an
hour. Harroun's record Of 74.59 miles
an hour, established in the race last
Memorial day. had been shattered and
Joe Dawson was hailed as king of the
Speedway by 10000.
Teddy Tetzlaff, who month ago
captured the Santa Monica road race
and established a new worlds record
for 3O3 miles, shot across the line
more than ten minutes after Dawson
finished. Hughie Hughes, the Mercer
pilot, was third, and Charlie Merz, in
the No. % Stutz, was fourth.
Harry Endicott, in the Schacht;
Zengel, in the No. Stutz; Jenkins at
the wheel of the White; Koran, the
Lozier driver; Wilcox, in the No. 9
National, and milford, driver of the
powerful Knox, got the checker flag
in the order named. OF the "a cars
that were sent away at 10 o'clock only
ten finished.
Harry knights Lexington was the
first car to be permanently locked.
He encountered engine trouble at the
start and quit after turning five laps
On the next lap the Opel blew out
a connecting rod and Len Ormsby
Joined the disguised knight. David
Bruce Brown, the idol of the National
hackers, was the next to drop out, but
after holding second place for the first
so miles.
Hern's Case burned out cam shaft
bearing on the 55th lap, while Mar
quette, the McFarlan pilot, and his
mechanician, Fowler, had a narrow
escape when their mount lost two
wheels on the northwest turn, rode
the wall for hundred yarls and then
smashed into telegraph pole. Louis
Disbrow, Hern's teammate, was forced
to quit the race when he blew rear
tire off his car and sheered a differ
entail pin.
Liesaw, the Marquette-Buickd driver,
withdrew on his seventy-second lap,
after breaking cylinder and smash
ing his crank case. The Firestone-
Columbus, which carried away a small
piece of thep rize money in 1911, en-
countered valve trouble before noon.
Gil Anderson, the driver of the
Stutz No. l, and Agan. his mechani-
clan, turned somersault on the back
stretch on their eightieth lap, when
the Bear Cat lost a shoe, broke a
wheel and upset. Wishart's Mercedes
went out of the eighty-second lap with
q broken water connection, and Joe
Matson retired the Lozier with brok-
en- crank shaft.
Bert Dingley abandoned the race af-
ter running 800 miles when the Sim
pick pushed q piston rod through the
crank case, while Bob Burman, who
by careful and consistent work put the
Cutting into fourth place at the end
of $50 miles, overturned on the back
stretch ON his 18TH time around and
suffered few bruises about the face
and head. His mechanician, Goetz,
was not hurt.
Although De Palma lost the race
and the fame and fortune that went
to the winner, he has the consolation
of knowing that he shattered all speed
way records from 100 to $50 miles.
Eighty Drowned by Floods.
London, May 31.-A dispatch from