New Britain herald., 1919-04-08

HSh huently and has mastered another language now dead, and one of his most pleasing characteristics is an absence of affectatio in any respect. While working around his car. wher- ever u may be, De Palma converses with automobile magnates with the same ease and with no more interest than he chats with the nneekest em- ploye about the garage. If you ask him why he chose automobile racing as a life vocation he will answer that he did so because he never looked upon it as a hazardous pursuit and that had he viewed 1t thus he would have re- mained in the factory as a mechanic. If you engage him in a review of the series of accidents which have so dramatically cheated him of some of the most spectacular races ever staged, he will smilingly tell you that it might have been worse, and points to the fact that he has come out from under the wreckage of many narrowing smash ups virtually unscathed. has stopped his burning car while dashing through space at record pace and left 1t un- harmed himself. Never did he take any stock in the widely talked of De Palma luck" which so many de- clared had so long followed him. One instance is recalled where he led a field of eight racers over a 500-nile course. and at the 495th mile was twenty miles ahead of the nearest contender, with $9O,Oo0 at stake. As <le,k. 1@ s11A the course his admirers had turned the air into Shunderous roar, and the betting was a hundred to one in his favor. The track was good and the weather clear, his racer was running as smoothly as if on a concrete floor: but the whole affair collapsed at the 495th mile. The car stopped and the driver Jumped from his machine. A quick survey proved that an oil pump had blown up, and De Palma's first thought was to get his car to the goal before overtaken. To replace the pump was physical impossibility if the race was to be won, and he attempted to push the giant racer over the remain ing five miles. This method failed, however and he left the field.
 Never Lost His Nerve
 Fred Wagner, the veteran timer and father of the speeding game" related this incident vividly while talking to the old-timers the evening after the great accomplishment of Ralph De Palma at Daytona. "I felt to the bot tom of my heart for Ralph," said Wag, and I mentioned then that it was one of the most dramatic defeats of it's kind I had ever seen a driver suffer. The Italian had set the great throngs at tho Indianapolis speedway into frenzy by his daring driving, and it seemed that almost every spec tator was his friend and booster. When the news of De Palrna's i'll fortune flashed through the long stretch of onlOokers the sudden col lapse of the hilarity into a spirit of utter gloom was something no one who saw it will ever forget.
 T have seen Ralph in great hair raising jams, where it looked like a tragic smash was inevitable, but by skill and luck he seemed to engineer his way through the perils without losing his place until the course was freed by another driver falling back or another shooting ahead. Some times it would be De Palma to make the forward dash, and again he would be left in the rear, only to rebound aS if resilient ball. He never seens +o lose his head, and through many dan gerous accidents I have watched his Skill and leVel-headed methods with thrilling admiration. The tragic end or Frank Croker, who was coming forward as leader in the racing game and the fatal race of Br,,oa BroWn, as well as many others wbo nave gone down in the great business or automobile speeding, never made a single inroad on De PaIma's nerv~- and he has survived accidents more startling in their general aspects than many of the fine boys who met their doom, and it has been next to a may vel to watch him come out iron, ,,rdsr them literally without scratch. His work here on Daytona Beach has au- tablished him where it seemed as ,f by the very hand of destiny he eventu. ally had to land"
 No Serious Accidents
 Wagner then told of defeats De Palma had suffered during the Grand Prlx races at Savannah, another at Cincinnati and several still f1rther back, and declared that if there ever