The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1915-06-20
BRAKES NOT USED
ON CHICAGO TRACK
Drivers Can Circle Course 1T Maxi
mum Speed of Cars Without
Danger On the
Turns
NEW RECORDS CERTAIN
Special Gears For Sunbeam Cars and
oIdfietd Tunes Up His Front
Wheel Drive
Christie
Especial To the Gate Cityl

CHICAGO. june 19-Automobile
engineering experts. mechanicians and
I inventors are being rushed to the
new Speedway Park track to aid in
! making over the engines of the big
racing cars to meet the extraordinary
conditions created by the perfection
of the big wooden track. Every drtr
er entered in the race now realizes
that more records will probably be
smashed in the big 500 mile race
June 26 than in any other single con-
test ever held in this country. Because
the perfection of the track as speed
course permits a driver to make the
circuit without once shutting off pow
er, every effort is now being center
ed upon securing engine adjustment
which will give high speed.
From now until next Tuesday when
the final elimination trials are to be
held, the great course will be turned
into an experiment station for the
perfection of racing automobiles.
Drivers rushing over the two mile
course at the rate of ITO miles an
hour now excite no comment from
the experts who tune up the big rae
ing cars. On the contrary little time
Is spent in applause, all efforts being
bent toward securing more and more
power.
New Gears For Sunbeams
The Sunbeam team has received
their special fast racing gears from
England. The new parts are the
same used on the Brooklands course
in England. known the world over as
building of the big Chicago track
OF
when the team sailed for America
two months ago as 1t was thought no
Amrican track was fast enough to
permit their use.
Porporato, one of the Sunbeam
drivers said. Yes, Resta has done
well to establish the mark OF 10 miles
an hour on this track With our new
adjustments, however, we are conf
dent that the Sunbeams will do as
well If not better. This is the great
est track I have ever seem"
To date fourteen o. the drivers have
qualified for the race. The other en-
trants. knowing the intense efforts to
be made by every race driver to get
his car into the race, are holding back
and working over their cars that every
thing may be ready for the l---.- tests
on Tuesday.
OIdfield Tuning Christie
When Barney Oldfield found he
could drive his 900 horsepower 'front.'
drive-Christie at top speed over every
| inch of the course, without shutting
off speed for the turns, he climbed
/ into pair Of overalls and, forget
ting brakes and stopping appliances.
began to overhaul his engine. When
Smiling Ralph" Milford began to
josh Oldfield over the latter's entrance
| into the workman's brigade, the old
master driver yelled, This race is
going to be won by the fastest car,
not by the driver who can skid his
car around corners. This course is
straightaway, Ralph and don't you
forget it."
Oldfield also has at the track his
100 horsepower Cyclone Fiat His
Bugatti is being worked over at the
factory and there is every hope that
| it will be ready for June 26. Tomorrow
| Oldfield will give a special exhibit of
his cars and, timed by the new cleo
trio trap device, a mechanical timer.
records.
Other feature events of the day
will be a two mile race between Old
field and De Lloyd Anderson, the
aviator, whose big biplane, it Is
claimed, will have hard work defeating
the Christie racer. In preparation
for the big race, the pit men are
daily put through the drills of quick
changes on tires, filling of oil and gas
tanks and repair work.