The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-06-20

Aces" and one of the worlds pre- mier racing driver. before he forsook l the speed sport for the realm of the sky. contrndicts the opinion. recently | advanced in some quarters, that au- | tomobile racing serves no useful pur- | pose, and that consequently it ought | to be abolished, to avoid the recur- | renee of such events as marred the | Liberty Sweepstakes race, May 31st. |
 Tt is with a good deal of regret" says Captain Rickenbacker, that I | note the adverse sentiment current in l some sections against automobile | racing. as the result Of the three fa- | talities that happened during .he In- dianapolis 50O-miie Liberty Sweep stakes race at Indianapolis, at which I ofictated referee. The death of any man Is a sad thing, with many pathetic consequences in its wake, 1 and If 1t served no other purpose than to make q Roman holiday, as has been charged with reference to automobile racing, 1t would indeed be 1 inexcusable.
 Now, 1t so happens that prior to entering the U. $. air service I was Identified with automobile racing for a good many years, and consequently am more familiar than is the aver age individual with the useful, and I may say right now, Indispensable role played by the sport In the de- velopment of automotive design en- gineering and metallurgical discov- cry, as applied both to the automo- bile and the airplane. Stop and consider that a contest such as an Indianapolis 500-mile race tests ev- cry part of motor cars mechanism more severely than two years of or dinary usage, and you will get an idea of how racing has speeded up engineering progress.
 'In the last Liberty Sweepstakes race every accident but one was due to defective wheels, wheels that ap- parently were sound but under the crucial strain of sustained high speed revealed themselves in their true light. The same wheels would have given good service under or dinary touring conditions for one or two years. perhaps, and then sud- denly crashed to the wiping out pos sibly of an entire family. as has off, ten happened in touring accidents.
 The discoveries of the last In- dianapolis race will enable wheel manufacturers to improve their pro- duct so that occurrences such as those which produced fatalities dur ing the contest will be impossible on the open road. Who shall say then, fn view of this fact. that the Liberty Sweepstakes race did not serve useful purpose?
 "Any one who drives an autoro- bile has often reflected upon what would happen If his steering ap- paratus would break, leaving him helpless at the wheel of an uncon- Profitable car. and great has been the wonder that this delicate contrivance Tareiy gives any trouble. As a mat ter of fact, the perfection of steer tng mechanism is one of the chief pontr1butions of automobile racing to fhe safety of motoring. Designs that were thought good engineering prac- flee were quickly shown to be most dangerous when subjected to the test of extreme speed and consequently discarded before they had opportun- 1ty to work mischief in the field of pvery day use.
 The same thing applies to all oth- TT parts of an automobile with re- spect to safety. Frames axles wheel spindles. bearings, tires, the proper design and materials for these were arrived at much more quickly through racing and with much less Joss of life than would have been possible had automotive progress not had the assistance of racing
 "Also don't forget that racing calls Unto play the keenest engineering minds in constant struggle to pro- euce moro horse power, more ener- gy. with less weight,-an endless reaching out into new fields for the purpose of increasing efficiency and economy in gasoline consumption. To increase engine efficiency new types of valve action have been invented, different cylinder arrangements have beeA tried, all kinds of manifolds Quilt, every piece gone over with a view to possible Improvement, while fhe endeavor to reduce weight has proved a stimulus to the metallur- gfcaI arts, resulting the invention of steels of unheard of 1fghtness combined with surpassing strength.
 '-The new, light weight car of the future. combining comfort and roominess with low operating cost, both as regards gasoline and tires, will owe it's existence more to racing than any other factor.
 'And looking back for a. moment to the recent days of war, what do you suppose would have been the position of allied aircraft rnanufac- turers but for the experience of rac- lng? Every engine that went into an allied airpIane, from the English Sunbeam through the Hispano-suiza and Flat to the American Liberty, in corporated principles developed in the peld of automobile racing. and which. without racing, could not have been developed in time to be of service. True. we are not supposed to have wars any more, but as long as the possibility is present, it will not do fa ignore automobile racing as a fac GOT in determining the safety of the nation
 ''Summing up the case of automc- bile racing, I would say that it is i'm dfspensable to modern progress, at least as far as events like the In- dianapolis races and the French Grand Prix contests are concerned, where the new ideas and theories of the most prominent builders of both fhe new and old continents are test ed in actual competition.
 ~For neN year. the Indianapolis speedway management has announc- Ad that contest will he for corx