Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1921-05-31

,broken connecting rod, but not before he
n had put to rest permanently the hopes OF
many contestants who attempted to fol-
low the pace cut out by bin.
De Palma wasted no time in getting
under way. He captured the very first
lap of The race closely followed by Sarles
and Boyer. Sarles managed to pass the
flying Ballot in the stretch on the second
lap and Boyer got his lone 500 lap prize
money of the day On the seventh. But
outside Of those two laps there was
nothing to it but De Palma until after
the race was half run. The terrific speed
which he was clipping off is shown in
that the first twenty-five miles were run
| at the rate Of 91.6 miles and hour, and
this average steadily increased TO the
81 225 mile mark, where It reached its apex
at 1855 miles BY this time De Palma
had Tapped the entire field and he eased
4 down a trifle on the next twenty five
miles but at the half way mark it stood
at 9352 miles an hour, which was more
than two miles an hour faster than last
year.
RACING THRILLS
4 IN FIRST HALF.
little later De Palma went out OF
he race and from that time on the race
4began to assume the appearance Of a
procession. In all frankness it must be
admitted that the real racing thrills came
n the first half Of the race. For ex-
ample at the 100 mile mark five cars
driven by De Palma, Sarles, Alley,
aearne and Milton were all on the same
lap, thing unprecedented in the history
pf the great motor event.
But with De Palma gone the pep was
put Of the race to a great extent Sarles
do frrT
5 bn the NTH lap, but relinquished the
lead almost as soon as he had taken it,
Ind after that seemed content to play it
|safe for second place. Milton drove a
Aeareful, heady race. holding his lead and
aradually increasing it until at the end
4e was almost 4 minutes ahead Of his
Snearest competitor. But from a specta-
tors standpoint it would have been much
more thrilling had he set out to make a
runaway of the race or had Sarles made
desperate effort to take away the lead.
Milton made only two stops, once on
y the seventy ninth lap. when he changed
tires and took on gas and oil and again
h,Aear the end of the race. when, with a
mfOrtable lead, he made safety" stop
supplies.
e was a matter Of comment that only
y9he of the real speed boats that had
fought so bitterly for the qualifying hon
ors on last Wednesday finished. Of the
six proud pOssessors of positions in the
first two rows, Sarles was the only one
TO finish.
WILCOX FIRST TO
DROP FROM RACE.
Hopes for victory by an Indianapolis
driver were dashed early when Howdy
Wilcox coasteG down the home stretch
and without even hesitating at the pits
turned his car of the track and parked
IN the grass, out of the race with a
broken connecting rod. This was on his
twenty second lap and his blue PeugeOt
was the first car TO drop out As a mat
ter Of fact, it was no day at all for for
mer winners and the jinx that long ago
decreed that no winner should repeat was
on his Job from the very first. Four
former winners were entered and none
finished. DariO Resta. who has not been
wei since coming to indianapolis, did
not even start, but gave the wheel to Ora
Haibe, an Indianapolis boy. who pulled
the green Sunbeam through into fifth
place; De Palma went out with a broken
connecting rod just after the halfway
marx was past; Wilcox suffered the same
fate before the race was fairly under
way. and Rene Thomas, after working
into third place, was forced to the side
lines with a broken water line.
The first accident OF the day was
staged by Joe Thomas in a Duesenberg.
Just as Joe got well into the first turn
on his twenty fourth lap a steering
knuckle snapped, the car hit the top
wall. then crashed to the bottom. but no
ohe was hurt. Next on the list came
Ibuis Fontaine in a Richards Junior
Special. Frozen brakes caused him to
clash into the retaining wall at almost
axactly the same point where Joe Boyer
had his accident last year. The car hit
k<1e wall going backwards and the rear
part Of the machine was driven over the
wall Barring a bump on Fontaine's
head he was unhurt as was Cotton Hen
ming, his mechanician.
Other cars forced out OF the running
were: Talbot Darracq, Andre BOillOt
driving, forty-first lap. connecting rod
bearing burned out; Jean Chassagne's
Peugeot, sixty fifth lap, lost hood and
after making many efforts to replace it
Chassagne gave up and withdrew the car;
joe BOyer's Duesenberg, sixty-fourth lap
rear axle trouble; Frontenac, driven by
Van Ranst eighty eighth lap, broken
water connection; Richards Junior
Special, hit the wall while driven by
Thicksten and damaged steering
kuuckleS so tnaI Uuey were declared Dy
the officials; Tom Alley, while running
in third place in his Frontenac burned
out a connecting rod bearing on his
18th lap; Eddie Hearne's Revere, 111th
lap, valve trouble, Jules ElIingOe
Frontenac, forty ninth lap, broken oil
line.
GREATEST CROWD
WITNESSES RACE.
Beyond any question the greatest
crowd ever gathered together in the
Speedway grounds witnessed the race.
Last years record king figures were
exceeded and it was estimated that be-
ztween 125.0O0 and 10000 persons saw
The race.
ITae crowd was better handled than
Essr before and there was far less con-
gestion than in past years. This IN
questionably was due TO two things:
first. better facilities and better roads
for handling crowds, and second, the fact
that race goers have learned that it is
necessary TO start early.
In fact many early ccmers parked their
cars at the Speedway gates and stayed
81 night Every road leading to the
race was crowded with automobiles by
cErlock. and thousands upon thousands
rs {Fs s 8 ~ + n -. ~ - - NJ $50 ~