Photograph by Pictorial News Co. THE START OF THE SMALL CAR RACE AT SAVANNAH, GEORGIA, NOVEMBER 25, 1908 CAMBRIDGE, MACS. PUTNAM'S MONTHLY VOL. V & THE READER JANUARY, 1909 NO. 4 THE CALL OF THE CAR RECORD-BREAKING AUTOMOBILE RACERS AND THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS By MINNA IRVING HE life of a chauffeur who drives for glory is a strenuous one. When he is not trying to clip a second off his own or a rival's record on the track, or dodging cops on endurance runs or speed tests, he is rushing to and fro between factory and salesroom, trying out high-powered new machines, tuning up old racers or building something new in bubblewagons; for most of the noted whirlwind drivers are just plain ordinary. demonstrators or testers, when they are not out for records. A few of the older ones are automobile engineers, but the young fellows are mostly all looking forward to the day when they will build gasoline engines as well as run and repair them. The more ambitious ones are saving their money for a course in mechanical engineering; but as many of the cash prizes offered in the different events fail to materialize, this is slow work for most of them. The cups and other trophies won go to the firm, but the drivers get the medals and some of them have quite a string of these gold and silver souvenirs. There is considerable misconception as to the amounts paid to drivers, based on a few instances where they have received special pay for special races. The general public has a mistaken idea that a popular driver coins gold in every speed contest, and has nothing to do between times but ride around in a fast car and enjoy himself; but his earnings, in fact, are not those of a famous jockey. Some good drivers receive as high as seventy dollars a week; but the average men who drive racing-cars in America to-day are factory men on Copyright, 1908, by PUTNAM'S MONTHLY CO. All rights reserved. Mr. Vanderbilt is the foremost promoter of automobile racing in this country, and giver of the cup for the race which is named for him times get a little extra pay; and of course they receive their travelling expenses, just as any other employee of the company does. There is such a tremendous desire among automobile operators all over the country to have an opportunity to win fame and glory in great racing events, that there are hundreds of applicants for the driver's seat of every racing car, and many of the "crack" operators will drive for almost nothing for the chance to get before the public. This has brought the prices of drivers down with a rush. Observing the men at the wheels of the different machines in any big event, one is struck by the predomin less of consequences, have left their marks on those lean, strong, weatherbeaten faces waiting at the line for the starter's signal. Not reckless, but absolutely fearless, every man is ready to offer up his life to the spirit of speed. A driver who was seriously injured while practising for the Briarcliff race said as soon as he recovered consciousness: "This makes nineteen times in nine years that I have had broken bones, but I'm going to keep right on racing." George Robertson's narrow escapes from death on the track would fill a volume. Speed contests and endurance runs certainly weed out the weaklings; no man who is a coward can hope to drive a racing-car to victory, and several drivers now in the public eye have proved themselves to be possessed of courage, endurance and heroism equal to any ever displayed on the battle-fields of history. J. B. Ryall won the hill-climb up Giant's Despair at Wilkesbarre, in May, 1907, driving with a sprained wrist and taking twelve seconds off the world's record for such a feat. Later on, in the twenty-four-hour endurance race at Brighton Beach, the same man drove with a broken leg in a plaster cast strapped to the car. He clung to the wheel all night in this condition, and for one hundred miles of the distance he travelled between dark and daylight, averaging one minute and two seconds to the mile. After driving sixteen out of eighteen hours, he called upon Charles Rifen him off out of pure humanity. Any one who saw his face in the ghastly glare of the arc-lights, drawn and distorted with agony and streaming with sweat, will not soon forget it. Another striking instance of grit was seen at the elimination trials in the 1906 Vanderbilt race, when “Monty" Roberts, the youngest entrant, drove sitting in a pool of gasoline. The seat of his car was sunk in the tank, which developed a big leak from a stone which flew up from the road. When Roberts left the car he was not only so badly burned and blistered that he was unable to walk without assistance, but was so soaked from head to foot with the dangerous fluid that a carelessly lit match or burning cigar held near him would instantly have converted him into a human torch. FOXHALL KEENE, JR., IN THE CAR WHICH HE DROVE IN THE 1908 VANDERBILT CUP RACE Early in the race Mr. Keene's car caught fire and was destroyed berg, his racing-partner, to relieve him, but found the latter had fainted from exhaustion. Ryall only retired from the track when the officials insisted he was unfit to continue, and ordered Four years ago, when the first Vanderbilt Cup race established automobiling as a sport for millionaires, there were only a few first-class American drivers to enter the lists |