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THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH,
AMERICAN SPEEDWAY RACING.
What It Costs to Win Races.
year, as a rule.
event.
manufacturing millionaires
are
MOTORING SUPPLEMENT. SATURDAY,
Give
OCTOBER 22, 1977.
crowds. This has been demons talls, Much the same is true of trated. Perhaps intime, other the "Detroit Special" that Tommy new ones will be more successful Milton built for the Indianapolis, than those of the past and those race. It had a very different that are passing. It is understood supercharger which unfortunately that several groups of premeters "went out" during the race. Both, in various parts of the land are the Cooper, and the Detroit, even now contemplating new Specials are front-drive "typas board and other type speedway built albng the line of the Miller tracks, Certain it is that unless front-drive types that have had now ones are developing soon. r the "enll" during the last year,
ones revived, speedway racing will never pass on the boards and on the Indian- American They have proved very swift both the high limits of popularity and apolis brick oval. success of the past.
American speedway racing is a Gigantic Attendances. blazing, golden comet. Like every
Given the right sort of a day;jold propar comet, this, one has a cen- some May, 30, and you may yet traf nucleus and a long, blazing read of 200,000 people viewing this tall. The nucleus, of course, is great race festival. the Indianapolis Motor Speedway fast two years rain has threatened During the
What it Costs to Race. with its 500-mile race, its $100,000 for days in advance, yet each race
A None Too Promising Future, Take the case of a successful In all sorts of prizes, its Vas had over 135,000 visitors,
driver with a two-car front-drive crowd that mounts to nearly
So dubious is the future of this stable. The ears and parts will 150,000, when the weather is rights we have had year after year indications that some of the special Then in a year he will have to pay us another stretch of weather such type of racing that there are in-cost him not far from $36,000. More of this later, but now about the past and this great track will race car creators are getting ready out salaries for another driver an the comet's tail: The vast success show you another paradox. of the annual 600-mile, race and
to withdraw this sort of diversion: at least one mechanic that will the splendid financial success of of the racing comet. Now, what Duesenberg brothers, Fred S. and Transportation will take several Here is the central nucleus hea! It is generally understood that the run the amount up to $20,000. this track havo, inspired other sport promoters to try their luck of the board speedways that have August, will not attempt to carry thousands more. The cars may
on after this year. In various parts of the land i been set up because of the Indian-
They may Inst three years, if they are lucky. the past 12 years there have arisen polis success? With one or two race again if the cars on hand do This means an expense of rearly
the boar not sell to ambitious drivers. $20,000 a year. at least a dozen other motorcar notable exceptions
Obviously even race tracks. Always they
speedways have not been success- Then there have been rumours the stars cannot afford to invest board tracks, a mile or a little ful. Some, situated on the Atla that Harry Miller, who has built that much without a chance to more than a mile in circumference. tic coast, in the centres of mass most of the speedway cars of compete continuously in the board These tracks have two races a populations, but with fewer motor cent years, is becoming ao busy speedway events which up to now Last year there cars per thousand of inhabitants, with his other motor-making ven have gone on throughout the year. were 10 other speedway race meets have not made good. Some, in the tures that he will not attempt to The prizea may be big, but it costs besides the Indianapolis 500-mile South, tried it without success. advance this end of his business tremendously to try for them. Several in the great central State, after this year. It is these inten- There must be races every month Paradoxically, the Indianapolis at Chicago, Kansas City, Omations of withdrawal by the famous or so, or the game is dead. track is the only one that has made went out" because of lack of racing car makers that led Earl Engines Capable of 7,800 r.p.m. money in large measure. This is financial success. To-day there
Cooper, the former noted racing
Thanks to the big racing circuit especially interesting because the are four of these board speedways car driver to enter the business of the boards plus the Indian- original promoters of this track in active existence. One is locat- this year. He built four cars for Carl G. Fisher, J. A. Allison anded at Culver City. California, and the Indianapolis race and for later apolis race and the money to be won, the entrants can afford to A. C Newby, were young motor it is sald its last race is run. One speedway events of the year. It spend money on the cars and
Californian track became so valu- was also understood that he mighti
When the present 1909 who wanted to do something able in land that they could not later attempt to go into the basi-develop them.
91-in. engines were new here, a to promote motorcars is general. afford to race on it. That was at
ness on a arger scale. It is said little more than a year ago, they Racing was then the great ndver-Beverly Hills. It was successful he has considerable backing to tising medium for motorcars, even before the land turned to fine make this possible, if the cars were said to be speeded up to 6,600 This year some of them Therefore they built this track, in gold and diamond dust. Clear prove out and the markat seems to FP vesting nearly three-quarters of across the map, 30 miles from Boss exist for more of these tyres. The had been stepped up to 7,800 due million dollars in it. They did not ton, is the Salon, New Hampshire. Cooper cars are very similar to to development of inverted car-
higher buretters, Specifications expect to make money from it.speedway is quite successful. the Miller types. And they did not for a good many Down at Atlanti: City is another of the two differ so slightly that blowers, etc. Externally the cars years. Then the great dream track that has a struggle to get on paper they seem not far from have not changed a mite. turned into a money-maker. This the crowds in spite of its near-identical, except for certain de (Continued On Page 8.) has inspired others to, try theirness to Philadelphia. Its trans- fortune at the racing game.
portation facilities for crowds are Money was lavishly spent at wretched. This is a common Indianapolis, not only in setting trouble with the board tracks that up the plant but in giving it the have tried to make a success. fast word in good managemen.. Cheap land often means lack of During a race nearly 500 soldiers, proper transport., The land must. en special police duty, ook after be cheap, because the board mile the safety of the crowds. Other and half track costs several smaller armies of firemén, sand hundred thousand dollars. Even and oil men to keep the track in promoters cannot get all the proper condition, scoreboard men money in the world for their pet for the 20 or more scoreboards gambles. And speedways are in all parts of the grounds, to say gambles, to say the least of it. nothing of ushers, gatekeepers, and similar helvers by the hundreds are ratained to make it a perfect holiday. Without doubt third less soldiers and police could be employed. Nover yet have they all been needed. No panic has ever apoiled the race. They are hired each year to safeguard the vast crowd that attends. The same is true of other groups of hired workers. Many less could te used, but without the full quot there might be danger.
The founders of the race did not hope to make a great deal of money from it.
They wanted a great race run properly for the good of the motorsar industry. When the time came to offer a substantial prize they startled the world with the announcement of a $30,000 ize list for the 1911 race. That voke up the American motorist
The Life of a Board Track.
Another track at Altoona, Penn- sylvania, has attracted good crowds. But that track has another trouble. The life of a board track is said to be about fiva years, and the Altoona track has begun to wear out. Then, last year, there was an active track at Charlotte. South Carolina. These five tracks held a circuit of ten races. They offered prizes to the extent of about. $1,000 in prize- money for every mile of the races they offered. Most of their races were for approximately 200 miles. The average prize-money $20,000 for this distance.
waa
Paradox number three. In
spite of the fact that the board speedways have not been financial Aaccesses as a rule, it is their prizes that have made American It also woke up the American speedway racing possible. The factory racing world. In two speedway racing as practised here years it woke up the European is a professional driver's game. factories to such an extent that Bach racing pilot either own his from 1913 until 1919 not a single tear or is backed by a promoter American car won. In 1913. it was who owns the car and operates it Goux with his Peugeot; in 1914 to win some of the big prize-monev. Thomas with his Delage: 1915, De Last year the ten leading speed- Palma with a Mercedes, and in way drivers were paid $331,144 in 1916 Dario Resta with a Peugeot prizes. But look at what they won the race. Then a two-year spent. Those with front-drive lapse while America was at wal cars had invested in each vehicle and in 1919 Wilcox, with another of this type about $18,000. The Peugeot, again led the field.
front-drive cars, when new, are
By this time nearly every worth in the vicinity of $11,000. American motorcar builder had Then one bas to hire a mechani- quit racing. It was no longer as cian. He has thousands of dollars good advertising as it had been of railroad fare and freight to The number of Americans demand spend to go about across the may
ed:
employed every
of this vast land to cover this cir-
year.
Were there but one or two big races a year, no driver could afford to buy cars to compete in
the events.
Should the board
ing motorcars resource of the makers. In 1911 there were less than a million, cuit with ita ten or 12 meets a motorcars owned in America. Bri the end of 1919 there were 7.595,503 motor vehicles regi.er There was such a mass of drivers and those who desired care race-tracks go out, and nothing that the only way to advertise else take their places, racing properly was through the maga would die. Just now there seems
.The zines and the newspapers.
a drift toward dirt-track racing. American factories had quit
In some States they have dirt- racing partly for this acaso track circuits. This, of course, Also they could not meet the
means alow speed. It also means foreign competition on the track death to a good car, it is said, but Our public as a whole was not
one can buy old cars and keep in interested in racing us a means of learning of the motorcars they the game and save the good car for Indianapolis and the boards hoped to buy. Stock car racing that manage to exist. was "as dead as a door nail."
many years.
even
Without a comet tail of lesser But in the heart of the motor-
speedways of some gort car manufacturing industry was
Indianapolls could not expect to track. this great Indianapolis Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, the three draw good American entries for The board tracks great motorcar producing States, were all within easy reach of have another side to them. They The hundreds of thoustnds of are so smooth when new that the workers in the factories, the mil-speed limit is raised to the zenith. lions of motorcars owned within Special gears must be used to get the most out of them. When a 200 miles of this track, offered a special race-loving public what swift speedway racing car is right they were seeking for. Think of it can make records of better than Indianapolis as the hub of a wheel. 130 miles per hour on the boards. Within a radius of 250 miles you This extreme high speed has help- ed to bring comparatively large
an count nearly six million motor crowds to the board ovals. There ear owners to-day. Every single never have been board speedway one of these six millions can motor crowds that will compare with the to Indianapolis in a day. The
Indianapolis 135,000 to 145,000 ronds on the main routes are hard that have seen the race every year surfaced. More than this, a half- recently. None the less the dozen of the country's great rail board ovals, when well located as road systems send their trains to transportation, can, draw good through Indianapolis.
pressure
Even
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Bedap (4-dr plush 51645 Sedan (4-dr.) mohair 1735 Victoria
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