Norwich bulletin., 1914-02-07
AUTOMOBILE NOTES

New York promises to have as many if not more entries in the next hve- hundred mile race on the local motor speedway than Detroit, if the plans or all the Gotham enthusiastics who are busy plotting competition at present materialize. Outside of Harry Grant. and J. B. Marquis, both chaperoned by William Ziegler, there loom in the offering Ray Gilhooley, and Ralph Joyce. Against this quartet Detroit has only three cars, now building, ana another one to offer, so that for 1nte- city championship honors the big burg may yet win out.
 Gilhooley, like Marquis. it is stated, IS working over one of the Isottas that raced last year with such poor luck, due to their having been completed too late to permit of a final overhauling and testing in practice. Before the machine in question had approached the sixty mile mark. it had shook it's gasoline tank loose from its moorings, breaking the feed line, and making further progress impossible. The oil line, too, had become disconnected, so that burned out burnings would soon have seen it's finish. anyway as in the case of one of it's mates. With the remedylng of a few defects such as these, Gilhooley expects to have a machine that will step along with the best of them. If his auguries are cor rect, he should be heard from.
 As driver Gilhooley has the repu tation of a daredevil extraordinary. De Palma says of him that is the only steersman he really ever feared. for tn simple reason he could never tell what he was going to do next. He Is the Cobb of the speed game, always pulling the unexpected, whether 1t is going through a fence or breezing home & winner through a sudden spurt. At Wilkes-Barre one time. in a dirt track contest. De Palma says. Gilhooley suddenly shot to the front at such a dizzy clip that all he left was a vacum. The next instant seem tngly disdainful of the turn, he crash ed through thesticks and into clo- Yer field beyond. Everything had been sacrificed to the thrill of the moment. Such stunts as these have earned GIL hooley the reputation of being the worst speed fiend in America He
 Joyce is a comparatively minor per sonaSe in the speed game, but yet not without experience. With car as fast as the Delage, he should cut ice in almost any kind of competition. Last year his proposed mount set a new European road racing record at Lle Mans averaging 76 miles an hour for almost a whole days racing, and doing the last lap in S2.5 time, so that 1t must be figured on all the way.
 Barney" Oldf1eld, the veteran rac- ing pilot, will drive in a Vanderbilt cup race for the first time on Febru- ary 21, his mount being entered by George R. Bentel of Los Angeles. AL though Oldfeld has driven more races on tracks and speedways than any other driver, he has never been a con tender for the Vanderbilt cup. He will drive in the grand prize race as well. Barney has been seen in several road races on the beautiful Santa Monica course in California, upon which the great classics are to be staged this season It will be the first time that the Vanderbilt has been run on the Pacific coast.
 Many race followers on the coast have picked either Spencer Wishart or Oldffed as the winners. Their mounts are known to possess great speed and the wise ones predict that one or the other is due to show up in front. In the Corona, Ca, race last fall OldfeId drove a Mercer. duplicate of the one he will drive in the Vanderbilt and grand prize. for 1S0 miles at an aver age speed of slightly over so miles an hour.
 The Santa Monica race course is claimed to be the fastest in the world It measures S.4011 miles to the lap. is macadam throughout. and skirts the ocean part of the distance. It was on this course that Tetzlaf made the official road record by averaging 7S.72 miles per hour for 50S miles.