The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-09-14
DROVE REAL RACES
Speed Kings at Free Fair Fur
niSh Thrills in Plenty.
Morbid Expectations of Many
Went Entirely dissatisfied.
JEERS JUDGES DECISION
Fast Time Made in All Events
Dust Was Bad.
Daring Driving on Turns Was
Deciding Factor.
BY "wILYUM" WOLFE.

WILLY WILT
Eight entries in the automobile
races at the Kansas Free Fair Friday
afternoon gave a pleasant disappoint-
ment to crowd of 5000 persons in
the stands and the quarter stretch.
The drivers really raced their cars,
and going into the turns furnished
thrills aplenty for the more tinlid ones
in the crowd.
Apparently the crowd selected two
special and particular cars for the
favorites. A so-called Ford. implanted
and unnumbered, carried the colors of
the ma jority of the crowd in most of
the events. "A Fiat, numbered with
a big white "6'' was the favorite in
the fifth event, and was the cause,
with an adverse decision of the judges,
of an extra event being added to the
afternoons program
In the first event of the afternoon,
a Maxwell of famous ancestry ana
noble lineage took the long end OF a
$225 purse. It was three mile event,
and was run in 1856 LIS. The giant
Ford. Haugdahl driving, came under
the wire for second money after hot
contest.
In the second event of the afternoon.
for a prize of $500, four cars of 800
entered. A Briscoe, driven by Filing
Doe, took the first place in the event,
tho Schockley, in StutZ, and Callhan
in another Briscoe, fought hard ITO the
last split second.
The Pursuit Handicap.
The third event on the card was
race known to motor bugs as pur-
suit handicap The cars are sent
away from the wire at quarter minute
intervals. Any car overtaken by a
competitor is automatically dlsquah-
fled from the race. End1cott, IN
Rahe Special. won the event after
gruelling session with Haugdahl in the
Ford.
In this event a National car driven
bv SouIcs, a beautiful lavender crea-
ton, was eliminated by the Ford in
the fifth lap of the five-mile race
Schockley in the Stutz was sent to the
pits by Endicott in the third lap. In
this race the first real driving of the
afternoon was shown, the ivers go
ing into the turns at full t., shower
ing the spectators in front of the stand
with great clods of earth.s After the
third lap the only way the cars could
be located in the dust was by a little
denser cloud of dust. Endicott came
under the wire six minutes and one
second after the first car was sent
away,
. The efforts of three of the drivers
to lower the state record for half
mile dirt tracks came to naught.
HaugdahI came closest but lacked
two-fifths of second of success.
Crowd Fails to Agree.
1t was in the fifth event that the
crowd became noisy and rough in it's
expressions of dissatisfaction over the
decision of the judges. On a close de-
cision the first place was awarded to
Ellingboe in a Briscoe over Haugdahl
in the Fiat. The crowd went wild,
i -tr~I,k
of the men in the judges box. Fin
allv it was announced that Haugdahl
and Ellingboe would run the event
over and settle the big argument.
Haugdahl won the event, principal
1y because his car held the track a bit
the better on the turn into the stretch
and gave him the extra foot necessary
to win.
But One Accident.
The only accident of the afternoons
program came in the third lap of the
25-lap final event. Schockley went
thru the inside rail in the eighth lap,
but except for the damage to the
fence was uninjured. Endicott was
forced to pull his Rahe special in the
tenth lap on account of engine trou-
BILE. The National went out in the
fifth lap. The Stutz was withdrawn
in the nineteenth lap. Ellingboe in
the Briscoe won the event after driving
a fast steady race. The decision in
this event came at the turn into the
stretch in the. second heat of the
fifth event On the inside of the track
and with his car holding close to the
track without much loss of power in
skidding, Ellingboe overcame the
slight lead of the Ford fooled by
Haugdahl and came under the wire
scant length in the lead. A Comet
Six with Goldboren at tffe wheel fin
ished in third place tho Tapped three
times by the winner