The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-07-23
Automobile News
A Vacatton Thr1Iler.

thriller. The man who backs Ralph De Palma in his big race has clipped four hours and nine minutes from the New York-Chicago motor record.
 Accompanied by J. E. Williams, J. H. Catten and relief driver, Patter- son drove his Packard out of Chi cago at 2:52 a. m. on Monday, July | 12. He reached the Packard branch | on Broadway, N. Y, at 3:35 p. m. 1 on Tuesday, July 13, an elapsed time l of S5 hours and 43 minutes. The former record was 39 hours and 52 l minutes. Patterson's record one year ago was fl hours and 37 minutes.
 The official report shows that Pat l terson lost but 60 minutes, his actual running time being 34 hours and 43 minutes. He lost IS minutes chang i ing a fan belt and the rest of the hour was expended in replacing two rear tires and in taking on oil and gas. The run is approximately 1,02o miles long.
 $5O,OOO Auto Race.
 With the great two miles motor racing track at Sheepshead Bay now assured of completion not only in time for the elimination trials but also for fully 8 fortnight of practice pre- irninary to them, the entry blanks for the opening race at the Sheepshead Bay Speedway on Saturday, Oct. 2, have been issued. Racing experience this season has convinced the Sheeps- head Bay Speedway Corporation man agement of the wisdom of race that can be started at eleven o'clock and entirely completed in less than four hours, giving suburban and distant race goers ample time to catch out going afternoon trains after having seen thrilling hundred mile hour battle from start to finish. So it is that there has been no change made in the $50 mile distance for the race tentatively announced earlier in the season. The race will be for the America cup and prizes aggregaung 1000 in cash. To give a wide dis tribut1on of money and insure a big field continuing in the race to the end, the purse has been split as fol- lows: First, $2o,o0o; second, $1o.- $3,oOo; sixth, $2,ooo; seventh, $1,4oo; eighth $1,2oO; ninth, s1,1Oo; tenthy $1.OoO; eleventh, $500; twelfth $500.
 In view of the magnitude and width l of the Sheepshead Bay and other new speedways, the racing rules have been changed so that 32 cars will be eligi- bIe to start on October ?. Elimination trials will be run on Friday and Sat urday, Sept. A and 25, and on Mon day, Sept. 27. Each car must show at least eighty five miles an hour on | a one lap test, and make one trial each day. Additional cars to the 32 start CTS, who have made over 8 miles an hour, will be positioned on the start ing list in the order of their speed and will move up into the starting list 1 in case of any of the original 32 eligib1es being withdrawn. This will not only insure a full field up to the limit, but will give recognition on the program of the official speed records 1 they have made in the elimination i trials Liberal conditions have been made as to the return of the entrance fee of $20O. This will be refunded not only to all starters, but also to those qualifying but not included in the list of starters owing to the limit alton of the field to 32.
 Rapid progress continues in the construction of the Sheepshead Bay l Speedway. All the steel frame work and concrete supports for the track are up. TWO million feet of wood surface has been laid, constituting fully one half of the area of the course. In fact. it is now possible to
 drive around the entire circuit in an automobile.
 Autos An Aid to the Farmers. Speaking before the Batavia Auto mobile club recently, Francis M. Hugo secretary of New York state, declared that the stability of the motor car in dustry had become of such magnitude as to be matter of national inpor- tance, especially during recent times. 1 'eThe most remarkable feature of 1 the present situation" said MT. Hugo, 1 ''is the enthusiasm with which the | American car has been welcomed by the farmer, who has bought in the l last few years hundreds of thousands
 of light cars for the combined pur- 1 pose of business and pleasure. The farm hands are taught to run the ma
 chine, and it soon becomes easier to keep laborersNen farm where there is an automobile than where there is not.'
 He explained that four of the
 western states, which were the largest
 consumers of automobiles last year, | about sixty per cent. of the buyers
 were farmers, while in four other
 states forty per cent. were of the 1 same class
 This is a field. moreover he said. 1 which has as yet been only partially | exploited, for there are over 6,0O0,00O | farms in the United States, and among them is still a large, unsa tisfied con l suming power In one section of the country alone the motor car has not 1 yet come into its own, for all of the southern states combined absorb only. 1 a small percentage of the output, a | fact that is generally ascribed to the 1 indifferent character of the southern roads,
 The secretary spoke of the tremen-
 dous output of the motor cars during ] last year, exceeding 600,000 and said l that in New York state alone more cars have been registered so far this Iyear than during all of last year, and I four times the number recorded in 1910, when the present law took eff feet. MT. Hugo dwelt upon the grow ing popularity of the commercial car, pointing out its great capacities for | work over the horse drawn vehicle so 1 long it can be kept regularly at work in the hands of a, fairly intelli l gent driver.
 Tn most sections of the sstate,'' he concluded, public attention has been lately focused upon the notorious 1 schemes, jitneys as they are common l ly called, and while no authoritative figures exist to show that any of these l ventures have as yet paid a satisfac-
 tory return, yet at the same time these
 buses have been found to be indispen- l SiI in ip o11a