New-York tribune., 1918-06-03
Milton Uph olds Claim
Made by Italian
Driver
By Louis Lee Arms


sent Tommy Milton and his silver
tinted Dussenberg. Send them t,
Ralph de Palma!
The race is generally to the swift
adages notwithstanding. and ever
though it takes the American Auto
mobile Association the greater part O.
a day to unravel its tangled skein O.
scores. 1t develops now that by failin.
to check Ralph De Palma and MI
aero -motor-drivcn Packard in one O
the mid-sectional laps Of Saturday.
100-milc Hardness Handicap the white
shirted gentlemen who were laborin3
in behalf of the A. A. A. sent som,
$4,000 people home with the wrong
name on their lips. 1t should have
been De Palma, not Milton.
There was unquestionably an
error made" said Fred j. Wagner,
the veteran starter and Handicapped,
last night. "a bulletin from the
offices of the American Automobile
Association should set things straight.
1T probably will be issued to-day"
Tommy Milton, in an uptown hotel
took the news of his defeat phil
osophically
Milton Upholds De Palma
''If De Palma didn't stop Pm of
the. opinion that he defeated me-"
SAID the man whose name was carried
around the world RS the speedway
winner in Sundays papers. 81
thought De Palma made a stop after
the hftieth mile and was surprised
at the end of the race to find this
was not So"
II believe Ralph made I'D the lap
which Milton gained through his
time allowance" said Eddie Hearns,
who finished fourth under the re-
capitulation. "The three of us, with
Ira Vail, stuck pretty close together
during the latter stages of the race.
but prior to that De Palma had
caught up his lap and he certainly
led Tommy to the finish"
And De Palma said:
Il was certain l had finished bet
ter than fourth, which was the first
announcement of the scorers. SO |
Immediately entered formal pro-
test with the chairman of the contest
board. l was of the opinion that
had defeated Milton, but wasn't sure.
because I could not remember the
position he held when | was duelling
with Chevrolet in the earlier stages
OF the race. The result is gratify-
ing"
Thus, there being considerable una
nlmlty IN the belated decision there is
"reath-not to mention the adyerbs
adJectives and technical chronicles of
the race-to the brow of Mr.. De Palma,
the handsome and affable Italian.
Pot Boils in A. A. A.
Meantime the pot is boiling in A. A.
"A. circles. On such an embarrassing
"goat" and the tin cans seem to be
aimed IN the general direction of w.
Harvey Traband, jr., the secretary of
the Three AS, and some Of his assist
ants.
Traband in his capacity of official
scorer called off the numbers of the
cars to a half dozen checkers as the
motors swept down the stretch. 1t is
natural to assume that either he ne
elected to call Number Four''-which
was DE Palma's car-on one unfortu-
nate occasion or his checkers, who were
hopeless amateurs, did not lot down
Number Four" at one time when he
called it. Thus De Palma was officially
credited with lap less than he ac-
tually made and there is trouble with
out end.
An evidence of W Harvey Travand,
Jr.'s, possible cupability is offered in
the fact that in the ten-mile Futurity
the scorers were missing on few CYL
lnders and were disinclined to believe
that Tommy Milton had completed the
entire five laps of the race This pro-
duced large storm of protest from
one Tommy Milton, who was assisted
ny Ralph Mulford Mulford walked to
the scoring stand and declared that if
Milton didn't go five laps he (Mulford)
didn't, either. That settled the mat
Ter. The scorers deferred to the
drivers, and Milton was allowed to
compete in the Futurity final.
But If an injustice 20 Milton was
averted in the Futurity, the scorers
certainly atoned for it in the 1O0-mile
Harkness Handicap when they promot-
ea the smiling youngster to first place
py Ine elemental process of failing to
credit De Palma with all the laps
travelled by his creamy Packard.
Wagner's Excuse
Most of the men who have been
With us IN other meets" said Fred
Wagner, "have gone into service. and
the result is that the scoring Saturday
was conducted by inexperienced men.
SCORING speedway races, and particu
larly handicap races, is one of the
most difficult jobs in the whole gamut
OF automoblie racing. I've seen many
good man throw up his hands and
quit, among them Eddie ODonnell.
who as driver had previously held
the opinion that scoring was one of the
simplest things in the world.
u had an intuition that the scoring
was wrong in so far as De Palma was
concerned, and when he came to me
after the race with his protest we de-.
cided to Immediately recheck. At mid
night Saturday night it was fairly
proved that Ralph had won the race
INV m sure an m, ne understands that it was
him." "o 'ohors que
so that's all there is to it. The re-
cneek gives De Palma first money and
Miton. ime 8, secoyd SS minues n; and q seconds
seconds; Oidfeld, third. in So m;nutos anu os
ana go 30 seconds, and Hearne, fourth ;n -
! hour and 52 seconds. VIZ ~