Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-01-17
Continued from Sixth Page.)

| "Io''uS "ieli lie tTlNcS
Starts Winning Early.
! De Paolo achieved fame early in the
year by winning the 150-mile race al
! Fresno, Calf, and began to pile up his
| lead in the championship contest by
| finishing the victor in the Indianapolis
classic. May 80. He repeated his vic.
| tories at Altoona. June IA; at the Bal
timore- Washington Speedway, near
Laurel. Md. July II, and at Salem, n
! H., October 81.
Another speed king leaped to fame
during the latter part of the year
Young Bob McDonogh. who is but "a
years old, won his first race October
20, on the new Baltimore Washington
Speedway. after being barely nosed
out of first place by De Paolo on the
same track July II. McDonogh drove
to his first victory in AZ seconds under
the world-record time for $50 miles.
Speedway development has marked
the year 1925. Two new board courses
were opened-the Laurel, Md. track,
| ne and an eighth miles around, and
| the Salem, n. H, speedway, one and
quarter miles In circumference.
| These brought the total of board
speedways in the big league" circuit
to six. The Indianapolis track re
| mains the only brick course. II
was one of the first speedways con-
| structed in the United States, and
races have been staged each year
since 1911 for the distance of 500
miles. The Indianapolis course is Il
miles around.
Board Tracks Boost Speed.
Board speedways made their APP
pearance at Los Angeles. where in a
one-mile saucer the first events We're
held on the board tracks. The speed
on this type of track was pushed to
"A miles an hour. Five years later
a two-mile board oval at Chicago
raised the average speed for this type
to 1886 miles an hour for 500 miles
and 1925 miles an hour for 100
miles.
Records for board speedwayS have
been astonishing performances of
faster cars and skillful driving. The
two mile-a minute clip was accom-
plished in 1924 on the board track at
| Charlotte, n. c., when Earl Cooper
did the 25, so and rs miles in better
than 120 miles an hour.
The new speed records for 1925 were
made with the smallest engines yet
used on the motor racecourSes. Cars
were equipped with engines OF 1908
and 122 cubic inches piston displace-
ment. Their tiny size blazed the way
for still smaller power plants of Ola
cubic inches, which will make their ap-
pearance on the race tracks early in
1926.
Sport Is Clean.
Automobile racing in this country
has been a pastime noted for its clean
craftsmanship and the sincere at
tempts of its participants to give their
spectators the best that was theirs.
Racing has grown with the automo-
hi srNIl y,fy~ md h1 nfNY1
ness mechanically has been notable
and of the greatest assistance TO mo-
tordom at large, the spectacular con-
tests of fast cars have taken their
place among the sports that attract
annually huge throngs.
The history OF automobile racing is
one of continuous advancement. Com
pare the 52.2 miles an hour which was
the winning time of the first Wander
bilt Cup race in 1904 with the speed
of today. In few instances do figures
tell more enhancing story than
those which illustrate the quarter
century battle Of human skill and dar
ing with the mechanical makeup of
the automobile, in order to wreSt from
newer models, smaller engines and
finer adjustments more miles a min
ute.
However historians of the sport may
event that may be accepted as the
initial auto race. the time is certainly
not more than 80 years past.
First Race In 1895.
BY some chroniclers of motor racing
the honor of the first race Is accorded
to the famous road contest promoted
by the Chicago Times-Herald in 1895.
1t was won by Charles E. Duryea In a
field Of 81 entries. But the time was
far from imposing. The run Of 81
more an endurance than a speed
test.
The records Of the American Auto
mobile Association set down the first
road race in this country as the one
held by the Automobile Club of Amer
lea on Long Island April IA, 1900. It's
route was from Springfield to Baby
Ion. n distance of so miles, and was
won by A.. L. Riker, in an electric, in
hours 3 minutes 80 seconds. Fast?
1t was then, but speeders on our popu-
lar highways would now smile at such
creeping. But such is progress,
Racing on one-mile dirt tracks repre-
sents the next step in the racing game.
During 1900 meets were held at Gut
tenberg, n. j.; Newport, r. l.; Chi
cago, Trenton, n. j., and other places
The record of that period was set by
A. c. Bostwick in a Winton. in which
he Travelled 10 miles on the Gutten.
berg track in Is minutes 91-5 seconds,
setting a pace of a mile In / minute
u As seconds. The following year the
mile record was reduced considerably
when Alexander Winton made the dis
lance In l minute 20 seconds. But
this record was not to stand long.
Henry F'ournier the same year negoti.
ated the mile in 81 As seconds on the
Coney Island boulevard, where was
made the first attempt at straight.
away racing in this country.
Beach Races Started.
Inc real start OF the racing era is
fixed by c. G. Sinsabaugh, writer and
authority on motor racing, as the Or
mond-Daytona beach race in Florida
March 1928, 1902, when Senator" W.
j. Morgan. now a dealer in Newark,
y. j.. promoted a speed carnival. Win
ton in his famous Bullet fell short of
the Long Island record with his time
Of so 1-5 seconds
The Florida beach races gradually
leaped into fame, and 1t was there that
W. X. Vanderbilt. jr., January 81,
1904, In his Mercedes, made a mile in
80 seconds, setting thereby a world
record. A year later H. L. Bowden
bettered that time by driving the mile
in 81 Is seconds. Prior to January.
1904, Henry Ford held the unoficiai
mile record by making the mile in
SO % seconds on the ice at Lake St.
Clair
Records continued to fall, and in
1906 Frank II. Marriott, in a Stanley
steamer, turned the mile in % 1-5 sec
onds. at the rate of nearly 1913 miles
an hour, remarkable achievement in