Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-04-26

Indianapolis, Ind-Ralph t.
Palma. worlds speed king. has en-
tered the 5OG-mile Liberty sweeps
stakes, at indianapolis May 81.
The premier driver in the Ameri-
can racing game will start in the
chase for $4,000 n gold i'm the
l2-cylinder Packard racer that he
has used with great success On the
spesdways the last two seasons and
v hiCh has a : mary records to its
credit IS chameleon has culoIs.
This Will he the sixth 500-mile
race that De Palma has entered at
Ina apQlis and the third time
tnat he has named an American
made car. In tn 1911 event he
drove a simplex u Nth place, in
1913 his MERCER failed cary IN the
race, his only starts with YANKEE
racers. In tle~l9l2 race his MeT-
cedcs faitared with two Ia s to go
10 victory, in 1914 his ii eelss
Il d not start. being damaged n
qualifying, while in 1915 he scored
a victory in the last 50Gmile with
the Grand Prix Mercedes.
However, this merican car has
proved its metal in two seasons of
racing and scored its most spec
tacular Wn last August on the
Sheepshead Bay sDeedUay, when
its Italian pilot put I over the
jumps for five victories in five
starts. In the days racing it won
the q 10, 20, 80 and so mile sraces
and set new worlds records for the
2. 10, 80 and so mile marks in COM
petition. That the car has speed
is shown by It's average of III
miles an hour in the l0--nile event.
Also De Palma scored his victories
over a field of Americas best, trim
ming Ralph milford, Dario Rcsta,
Arthur Duray, Louis Chevrolet and
Ira Vail.
At the close of the 1917 season
De Palma spent almost a month at
the Sheepshead Bay track hanging
up new non-competit.ve records for
the one-hour, 10-mile, six hours,
and all distances from 10 to GOO
miles.
In establishing a new hour rec
ord De Palma took the laurels from
Jean Chassagne and the l2-cyiinder
which established a mark
of 107 miles, 1850 yards, on the
ID pOhldhuS GpCtuN III Ell ldIu
in 1910. De Palma and the Pack
ard made 100 miles in the so mn
utes.
In establishing the I0-mile mark
De Palma shattered the record
made by Homestead on the Brook
lands track with a Benz, in Janu-
airy, 1914, of 1925 miles an hour by
showing the average for the dis
lance up to 1877, covering the dis
lance in 5:17:40.
When DePalma got the worlds
six-hour record he bettered the
performance of Dario Resta, Jean
Chassagne and Lee Guinness, driv-
ing in relays, a Sunbeam on the
Brooklands oval. De Palma cover
ed GIG miles against the $50 miles
$50 yards that the Sunbeam trio
made in 1913. AS a matter of fact, !
The distance De Palma covered was
635.12 miles, but under A. A. A. !
rules the track is measured three I,
feet from the pole while the car
was always near the center of the
board oval De Palma made five
stops during the run for tires and
,uel and covered 101 miles an hour
IN the official distance of 1852 by
actual distance He never let the
average drop below 101 or creep /
above Ill.
In addition to the record drive. !
De Palma used the car to humble !
Barney Oldfield in a. series of dirt /
rack match races and to win a
lumber of other big time events +
The car is being rebuilt from the !,
ground up in the shops OF the Pack
Ird company n Detroit aid will be
me of the fastest in the field.
This is not the car, however, that
De Palma used to gain the worlds
ecords on fhe Daytona beach dur
ng the winter, as that is a much
anger 12-cylinder engine having a
'iston displacement of 905 against
he speedway's cars 299 cubic
inches. The b 3 car is a one-man
odied racer built only for straight