Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1919-03-02
Which Gives the Most ThriIls--
The Airplane or Racing Motor
De Palma Says It's the Racing Car and Goes Back to His Old
Game After Service in Uncle Sans Air Corps.
(By James H. Collins)

dubious. But a director OF flying is
supposed to fly.
Want to do % few stunts?" asked
the stranger, when DePalma was safe
ly strapped in,
Palma afterwards. There ! was
strapped ir and he running the show.
Would we do a few stunts? There
was only one answer--and we did
them
De Palma's service in aviation was
rather brief as he enlisted couple
of months before the war ended. But
it lasted long enough to give him a
Well-rounded experience In flying,
both of the stunts which might be
compared to the thrills of the speed
way, ana long distance flying. And
the veteran auto star lost no time in
getting back to his old game, firm in
the conviction that it beats aviation
| for thrills,
Flying seems monotonous compared
with motor racing" he says.
''On a trip of several hundred miles
/ you may be making speeds which
would be terrific in an auto--140
miles an hour. But at the height of
mile or more you have no reallza-
\
the wind and noise is lonesome work.
The stunts are more exciting of course
but there is no competition, no
] audience, no applause. Hurting over
the ground at Daytonia beach in a
! racing car at two and a half miles per
minute with 50-foot leaps from the
ground, or whirling around the bowl
ut Sheepshead bay with competitors
contesting every lap-thats very diff
ferent stuff! Every minute has its
problem and its thrill. | prefer to be
d Dwn on the grOund, smelling the gas,
| eating the dirt, in contact with my
rivals and the crowd"
Within a week after his discharge
| from Uncle Sans service he was back
in New York tuning up his two Pack
ard racers equipped with aviation en-
gines one of these is his big car,
sos cubic inches piston displacement
with which he has Just broken all
records at Daytona Beach, Florida
The other is his little car" 299 GU
bic inches displacement, with which
he will go after speedway and dirt
track racing records this summer
its displacement makes it eligible fol
all official contests under the A. A. A
rules.
These two cars had broken every
official automobile record in the
world except one, when war ended
The German BlitZen-Benz achieve
ment of nearly ZAP miles per hour
made by the late Bob Burman, wat
the only record left in 1911. DePalms
had his eye upon thet during the wal
and went straight for it as soon as HI
was free.
And he got it, ..."
When you travel two and one hal
miles a minute, he says, you need ;
good car, good nerves and a clear
mind There must be no worries, no
anything to interfere with the abso
lutte concentration needed in drivint
Nerves and concentration must be-
such that you meet an emergency al
matter of reflex action, almos
without thinking--at two and one
half miles a minute emergencies arr
dealt with in fractions of a second.
DePalma trains for his work b!
temperate living and a little bicycle
riding daily to keep on edge. Physica
TT aiming can easily be overdone, how
ever, as exhaustion might follow too
severe exercise. Mental training il
far more important, in his opinion
Weeks of preparation precede al
event like that at Daytona Beach. Hi
mind is centered on the car day ant
night. He lives with its mechanism
every waking hour, and at nigh
mentally goes over it part by part
testing for strength and efficiency
seeking details that call for altera
ton, making absolutely certain tina
everything will work at its best on tn,
crucial day. 1t is this preparation
which gives him the clean mind need
4
until thousands of mechanical detail
have been settled to his own salts
faction is it possible to dismiss then
and with them all worry, when h,
climbs in behind the wheel for tn
real test.