The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-06-01
Thurman, LeCocq and
Bandini Meet Death in
S1nash-Up.
WILCOX WINS RACE
Greatest Crowd Ever
Gathered at Track
Horrihed at Series Of
: Serious Mishaps.
BY BARNEY oLDFIELD
WORLDS MASTER DR1vER)

WORLDS MASTER DRIvER)
Speedway. Indianapolis. May 81
Before a throng surely the greatest
that has ever seen . race on the his
toric Indianapolis oval. Howard VIII
coz driving q Peuseot car. won the
classic 500 miles international sweep
stakes today. He wa dark morse.
h~ld n ten to one In the betting, but
n youngster OF stamina and nerve
Eddie Hearne. In a Durant special.
vas second. and jules Coux In
second PeuEeot third. Wflcox'a time
was s:44:21, which gives an average
OF s7.12 miles per hour.
Although the speed average for the
total flight was not 20 strfkingiy IN
contrast with other recent events, the
race Of today was undoubtedly fastest
In history In various sports.
with the terrific speed which the
isadsg9 unreeled, came an tncraased
danger 70 the participants. The re-
suN was a series OF accidents which
recalled the earliest days OF American
speedway racing.
.Hssu assa than three hvee we're HAcri-
f,csd to the god Of speed, and at least
one more 10 hanging In tha balance
IOutknL INV OAILCL imam A~ sAAJ1A SSs
but will apparently recover.
First Of the casualties befen thu
Thurman special car. which Wa
driven BY Arthur Thurman. Of Wash
inKton. p. C.. It rot out Of his con-
troll on the upper turn IN the forty
ffxh lap and turned ovsr. killing
thurman and critically intuv4Ag y.
Nolinero. HIS mechAnician-
An even hloodisP catastrophe -
| fs1l ~ Noanaef oaT e1 Louia I<eCo0s
of La An4ot11, which m - Mtnet5.
41xen IN cot sUdt of oontr0i sntAf1A1
fha back stxaecA ard 41enaA& eS0g
pinning LeCoeq and his mechanic. =
Bandfni. under the wreckage which
Immediately burst into flames.
Before the gaxe Of the Thousands
many Of whom lined the course on
either side u the catastrophe LeCocd
ana Bendins were ID badly burned
that their bodies wire almost I'M
recognizable. The third casualty be-
fell the Ballot car Of Rablot which wa
being driven by Jean ChaHagne.
This car hit the retaining wall At the
head Of the home stretch. throwing
out ChassaFne and Romf0uer. his
mechanic The driver esca ped injury
but Romiauer wAs hurt about the
head
Wilcox WIN his race only after the
hardest KIND OF a contest In which hl
fought or the assaults Of ave o. his
opponents. each In an probability. n
fast AZ the car he himself drove.
Most dangerous Of these opponents
wse probably Ralph De, Palma. my
old rival Of the mile tracks who drove
a piucky. dashirg rsce In his IL
cylinder Packard but long stors ~
- 49, = =
ana the other TO replace a front wheel
bearing, kept him from victory.
Mechanical mishapa also played
havoc with the fast rrontenac team
every member OF which ouartette
WA prominent at some stage Of the
race and one Of whom. Castor
Chevrolet. was throughout the middle
etAEes ~ the race In close attendance
on the Tying Hoosier.
IN the earlier stages wilcox. n
Palma. the Chevrolet brothers, Ear
Cooper and the four members Of tbs
French ballot team set = terrific paea
which promised to raise special havoc
with their tires.
Tho Ballot cara Wera plainly TOO un-
tried for such D hard rAee and dsvel.
opsd mechanical trouble which put
them out, only one Of them. AYhert
Guyct, remaining In money winning
position At the finish.
The tremendous amount q me-
ehanical trouble among the extremely
fast cars allowed several Of the steady
going type Of spsedstsrs 70 find places
among the nrst ten who divided the
$4,000 nurse. steAdygolnE taettoa
adopted when II became evident that
wilcox could not b headed - hong q
he continued to ynn wall, also won
out for several Of the other wise driv-
ers who drove the last 800 miles Il I