Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1914-03-05
VANDERBILT RACE
WON By De PALMA
Victor Makes 1916 Miles an Hour
at Santa Monica.
OLDFIELD COMES In SECOND
Spectators Cheer Daring Driver When
He Passes italian at Risk OF
Mechanician's Life and
His Own.
OLDFIELD COMES IN SECOND

Santa Monica Race Course, Cal,
Feb. 28.-The Vanderbilt cup automo-
bile classic was won by Ralph de
Palma Thursday when he sent his
Mercedes car 294035 miles in hours
81 minutes and Al seconds. This Is
an average of T5.5 miles an hour. Bar
ney Oldfeld, driving Mercer car, was
second in hours SO minutes and one
second.
Barney Oldfeld, who was second at
the finish, made one Of the gamest at
tempts to wrest a speed prize from an
opponent ever seen on any race track
A favorite with the crowd, the veteran
battled with De Palma for every inch
Of the distance that separated them
during the last Is laps. Seconds only
separated him from De Palma, and at
the end he was only 200 yards behind.
On the twenty-second time around
the course, when De Palma was hold
ing the lead and Oldfeld was pushing
him hardest, Oldfeld risked his
life in the most daring piece of driving
ever witnessed.
Once on the death curve" De Palma
nearly gave up his chances to win and
his life when he took the most danger
Gus turn on the track with full power
on. The next time he went around
the curve that had pulled Ed Pullen OF
the Mercer team and robbed him OF
the race, De Palma went more slowly,
and when he did OIdfeld CHANGED his
life and that Of his meChanician by
passing him on the right angle turn.
The race started like a certain
worlds record smasher. Spencer Wis
hart, the young millionaire driver of
the Mercer camp, took the lead on the
start, doing 8.4 miles around the
course in minutes and 20 seconds.
Wishart was forced out after his short
lived honor and Pullen in a Mercer
went into the lead. Pullen was going
good until the end of his tenth lap,
when he went into the fence at death
curve and his machine was reduced
to a mass of junk. He and his mechan-
ician escaped unhurt.
Gil Anderson, in a Stutz, swept into
first place and retained it until on
his eighteenth lap, when he went into
the ditch on the Soldiers Home curve,
and a wheel was snapped from his car.
This put De Palma in first place,
which he held without being dislodged
until the finish.
The race was unusually free from
accidents. No driver, mechanician,
pitman or spectator was injured. The
nearest to a serious accident was the
mishap to Pullen's car as he was max
ing IS miles an hour.
With 100000 persons packing the
grand stand and lining the track,
chiefly at the most dangerous turns,
Harry Grant, in an Isotta car, got away
promptly at ten o'clock. The car was
followed at intervals of 80 seconds by
the other IA entries.
OlIfeld went into the lead at the
end of the twenty-third lap, with De
Palma a close second. The crowd
went wild.
On his thirty-first lap Oldfeld was
compelled to stop at his pits for right
rear tire. De Palma flashed past him
while the favorite was filing his oil
and gasoline tanks. Barney lost only
a few seconds, and was off amid a riot
of cheering.
Oldfeld, however, was unable, with
all his gameness, to overtake the Ital-
ian, and lost the race.