motor age article

Dario Resta Dedicates Chicago Speedway with Victory in Record-Smashing Race

Italian’s Peugeot First to Cross Tape in Ianugural Contest on New Board Track and Averages 97.58 Miles Per Hour for Five Centuries

By J. C. Burton

Chicago, June 26 -- Chicago witnessed today the massacre of time, the conquest of distance and the coronation of a new world’s speed king.

A 2-mile track of wood, banked high at the turns and faster than the famous Brooklands, was the scene of the triple achievement, and dario Resta is the first of a new dynasty of Mercurian monarchs that was establish at 37 minutes after 3 o’clock this afternoon.

Resta’s crown is studded with new records. the Italian’s Durbar and the dizzy episodes preceding it were epoch-making. Records, made both at Indianapolis and at Brooklands in time trials were slashed, mutilated and smashed as Dario, the I, whirled in spectacular triumph to his throne.

Time Bows Knee

In order to win, Resta had to shatter records. The drivers that pursued him were as merciless as he. All ten cars to finish inside the money broke Ralph de Palma’s 500-mile mark of 89.84 miles per hour, established at Indianapolis 4 weeks ago, and the first four to get the checkered flag bettered the Brooklands’ average for five centuries of 94.75 miles an hour, made by the Sunbeam in 1913.

Resta did not have many minutes to spare when he shot over the tape for the last time. Close behind him was another swarthy son of Italy, another speed Alexander of Europe seeking new worlds to conquer in America, Jean Porporato, who annexed second money with the green Sunbeam. Porporato trailed the winner by 3 minutes, 24 seconds. His time was 5 hours, 10 minutes, 50.45 seconds, and his average, 96.5 milers per hour.

In fact, Porporato was Resta’s most dangerous challenger after the first 50 miles had been turned and he led the field under the wire at the completion of the first century, averaging 99.05 miles for the distance and winning $1,000 for setting such a furious pace.

Rickenbacher’s Maxwell was the first American entry to get the checkered flag. The hard-driving Teuton, noted for his relentlessness, captured third place and averaged 96.43 miles an hour. His time for 250 circuits of the 2-mile oval was 5 hours 11 minutes and 50 seconds and he lost second money by the eyelash margin of 1 minute.

Earl Cooper brought another American car, a Stutz, home in fourth place, the greatest of the California drivers completing the 500 miles in 5 hours 15 minutes 59.13 seconds, and averaging 95 miles per hour. Like Porporato, Cooper clung to the victorious Peugeot with the tenacity of a bulldog, and although handicapped by a leaking radiator from the 250-mile post on, attempted to tease Resta into pounding his car to pieces.

Harry Grant, who was fifth, came into his own again today. At the wheel of a six-cylinder Sunbeam, the veteran, whose fame has been in partial eclipse since he captured two Vanderbilt cup classics, drove the 500 miles without a single stop at his pits and established a new sorld’s record for motorized perpetual motion. What is all the more remarkable is that in his unprecedented achievement, Grant completed the five centuries in 5 hours, 18 minutes, 11.58 seconds, and averaged 94.3 miles per hour in his flight.

A third defender of Uncle Sam’s speed honors, and a second Stutz, finished inside the money when Gil Anderson thundered across the wire in sixth position. His time for the 500 miles was 5 hours, 20 minutes, 9.86 seconds, and his average was 93.9 miles per hour.

France took seventh and eight money, Louis Chevrolet at the wheel of the Delage, trailing Anderson’s Stutz home, and Bob Burman finishing 2 and a fraction minutes after the former Buick driver with his Peugeot. Cevrolet’s time was 5 hours, 23 minutes, 5.67 seconds, and his average 92.9 miles per hour. Burman covered the 500 miles in 5 hours, 25 minutes, 12.61 seconds, and hit a 92.2 mile-an-hour clip.

Tom Alley’s car was the only one of the three Duesenbergs to finish. Ralph de Palma’s former mechanician carried away ninth money with an average of 91.3 miles an hour. His time was 5 hours, 28 minutes, 33.88 seconds. He completed the race on the same four tires as those on which he started, but lost many precious minutes in the pit making mechanical adjustments and taking on gasoline, lubricants and water.

Joe Cooper’s Sebring, a reconstructed Marmon, with a Deusenberg motor, which made its debut at Indianapolis this year, upheld the honor of the dark horses and took tenth place at an average speed of 90.4 miles per hour. His time was 5 hours, 32 minutes, 10.42 seconds, only 24 minutes slower than the time of the winner.

Two other cars, out of a field of twenty-one starters, completed the 500 miles, Babcock’s Peugeot finishing eleventh and Von Raalt’s Sunbeam twelfth. Three cars were running when the race was called, Carson’s Maxwell having covered 244 laps, Orr’s Maxwell 241 laps, and Mulford’s Mulford Special 238 laps when they were ordered in by Starter Fred J. Wagner.

Notwithstanding the average speed of the winner was close to 100 miles per hour for the 500 miles, there were but six cars eliminated because of mechanical trouble. This is one of the most remarkable commentaries on the epoch-making race. The unfavored of the gods of speed were Chandler’s Ogren, Henning’s Mercer Special, Wilcox’s Stutz, Limberg’s Sunbeam and two Duesenbergs, one driven by Willie Haupt and the other by Eddie O’Donnell.

Records of Two Worlds Smashed

The speed of today’s race was terrific, but not altogether unexpected. After the remarkable time made in the elimination trials, when eight cars qualified at a speed greater than 100 miles per hour, the prediction was common that de Palma’s Indianapolis record would go by the boards, but very few experts dared prophecy that the time of the winner would exceed 95 miles per hour. It was generally admitted that all American records would be smashed, but the railbirds were too timid to predict that the phenomenal marks made at Brooklands, famous the world over for its velocity, would be equalled, let alone surpassed.

Speed Astounding

But Dario Resta proved that the dopsters of the gasoline circuit were too conservative in theor predictions. He drove the track at a speed that would be madness were the Chicago course not the safest in the world. At times, when necessity prompted it, he made circuits of the oval at an average of 107 miles an hour. The first lap was made at that speed. So were several others later in the race, when Porporato, Anderson and Earl Cooper grew desperate and shoved the throttle on their cars up to the last notch in hopes of overtaking the blue blur that tauntingly drove away from them.

After Porporato carried away the first $1,000 prize for making the fastest time in the first century of the five to be cpvered, Resta opened up and shot to the front to massacre time. Each mile reeled off by the blue Peugeot meant a new mark in the record books. One thousand dollars was added to the royal treasure of Dario, the I, at the completion of 200 miles, and each succeeding century was worth an equal amount, for distance was given a momentary value today, and each mile was worth $10 to the driver of the fastest car, which proved to be Resta’s Peugeot.

The time of Ralph de Palma, holder of the American records for those distances by virtue of his victory in the Indianapolis international sweepstakes of this year, is as follows: 200 miles, 2 hours, 14 minutes, 29.58 seconds; 300 miles, 3 hours, 19 minutes, 32.87 seconds, and 400 miles, 4 hours, 27 minutes, 17.17 seconds. Resta clipped 12 minutes from de Palma’s 200-mile mark, 16 minutes from his 300-mile mark, and 22 minutes from his 400-mile mark, and completed to 500 miles in 26 less minutes than did his fellow countryman in winning the Hoosier classic 4 weeks ago.

The Brooklands’ records, shattered by Resta and the victorious Peugeot, are as follows: 200 miles, 2 hours 5 minutes 6.28 seconds; 300 miles, 3 hours 7 minutes 45.46 seconds, and 400 miles, 4 hours 12 minutes 15.08 seconds. All three marks were made by a six-cylinder Sunbeam in a 12-hour time trial on the English track October 1, 1913, and Resta, today’s victor, shared the glory of creating them, as he alternated at the wheel of the car with Jean Chassagne and K. Lee Guinness.

Porporato, in leading the field at the end of 100 miles, and averaging 99.05 miles an hour for the first century, also established a new American speedway record for that distance today. The best previous mark was 1 hour 7 minutes 30.45 seconds, made by Resta in the 1915 Indianapolis race. Porporato reduced this time by 5 and a fraction minutes. He failed to better the Brooklands’ 100 miles record, 55 minutes, 35.55 seconds, an average of 107.93 miles per hour, hung up by the 12-cylinder Sunbeam 2 years ago.

Neither was the world’s 1-hour record of 107 miles, 1,672 yards, also made by the 12-cylinder Sunbeam at Brooklands in 1913, eclipsed in today’s race, for at the end of the first 60 minutes, the leader, Poporato, had not completed 100 miles.

Dario Resta went to the post at 10:30 o’clock this morning a heavily backed favorite. At the completion of the first 100 miles, the race was his, provided the Peugeot held up under the terrific strain of the record-breaking pace it set from the very second the starting bomb exploded. The French car was the fastest job in the field, 5 miles an hour faster than its most dangerous competitors. This was generally conceded by the drivers, who openly admitted that their one chance of victory lay in Resta’s failure to brake his natural impetuosity which might result in his pounding his car to pieces.

Watchful Waiting All in Vain

The drivers of the slower cars were satisfied to run in the ruck, nurse their mounts and wait for the Peugeot to come back to them. They waited in vain. The three Stutz pilots, Earl Cooper, Gil Anderson and Howdy Wilcox, adopted hounding tactics in an effort to tempt Resta into breaking up his car in order to keep the lead, as they figured that much of the Peugeot’s strength and stamina had been exhaused in the Indianapolis race. Such tactics proved boomerang strategy for the Italian was successful in throwing off the challenges of his teasing pursuers and the Peugeot did not play him false, although he demanded more of it than he ever asked of a thoroughbred of steel in his spectacular career as a votary of Mercury, and it was the Stutz that rebelled under the high-speed punishment.

Worn Tires Stop Stutz

For the first ten laps of the whirling, reeling, blinding race, the Stutz cars hung to the Peugeot. Then the desperate chace of the pacemaker suddenly stopped. One by one, the three white cars were forced to come into their pits for new wheels, the blinding speed grinding the rubber tread from the right rear tires. Resta also was forced to stop for a wheel before the completion of 25 miles but his first halt gave the Stutz no advantage.

Another stop for tires in the first 100 miles put the Peugeot in third place at the completion of the first century, but the lead of Porporato, the pacemaker, over Resta was only a minute. Earl Cooper was in second place, seconds only separating the three leaders. Although he lost time in the first 100 miles, Resta gained strangth duiring that period for the attack of Stutz was partially broken by the elimination of Wilcox’s car with a broken piston at the end of 90 miles, and like the Count of Monte Cristo, the Italian counted “One” as he saw the disabled white mount rolled into the infield. Of the Stutz trio, only Anderson and Cooper were left to torment him, and their cars did not have the speed which Wilcox’s had shown at the start.

As the race progressed and Resta, by spectacular driving, shot to the front and gained precious seconds on each succeeding lap, the challenge of Anderson and Cooper became less vexing and it was Porporato that struck fear in the heart of the pacemaker. Anderson did not have the necessary speed to overtake the Peugeot and Cooper’s car was handicapped by a leak in the radiator after the completion of 250 miles.

Even with Porporato and Rickenbacher in desperate pursuit, Resta had little to fear. The Peugeot is a car of two virtues. It has both speed and stamina. Attempts to run the wheels off the story French machine were futile, although Cooper and Porporato adopted such tactics time and again. Resta drove with a confidence that at times appeared nonchalance.

Before the start, he estimated that an average of 97 miles an hour would carry away first money. He stuck to this pace, hitting a faster clip when necessity dictated and as his pursuers opened up in a desperate attempt to pass him. His average was consistent but elastic. He was always the master of the situation, supreme when his most dangerous competitiors tried to derive him to destruction or attempted to steal an unsurmountable handicap should he lie back to rest his motor.

Porporato’s Cunning Wasted

Porporato, cunning as he is, was no match for the masterful Resta. Realizing that the Sunbeam was slower than the Peugeot, Porporato tried to lead his rival into dangerous pockets. He drove like a madman on the straightaways in the hopes of beating Resta to the turns and forcing him to take the banks high up. Resta met such challenges with speed and refused to give an inch to the scheming Porporato.

In these desperate brushes, Porporato was reckless and resta confident. Resta knew the hopes of every driver in the field, knew that they were waiting for him to break up under the high-speed strain, and he was determined that such exasperating tactics of watchful waiting would be for naught. Resta had confidence in the speed and stamina of his car, a confidence that many of his rivals lacked. He refused to take chances. Near the end of the heart-breaking struggle, he grew even more cautious and permitted Porporato and Cooper to pass him in the furious drives for the inside position at the turns. He could afford to lie back. His lead was safe provided his car did not play him false.

Stop Arouses False Hope

When only 4 miles from his goal, Resta was forced to stop at his pits. When his rivals saw the blue Peugeot slow down and glide over the concrete portion of the track, they were spurred on to greater speed. For a fraction of a minute. they thought that the stop, the fatal stop that they had waited for, had come and that the French car was a victim of its own record-breaking speed. Their hopes were shattered when the Peugeot changed a wheel in 25 seconds and Resta resumed his conquering flight.

As was generally predicted, today’s contest was a test of motors rather than a test of tires. This was especially true after the first 100 miles had been covered, for in the last four centuries there were fewer stops for new wheels than in the first 100 miles of the time massacre. The phenomenon, like all phenomena, is difficult to explain, but it probably was due to the excessive speed made in the first 10 laps of the track and the damp condition of the course. When the average of the leaders was reduced from 105 to 98 miles an hour and the sun dried up the boards, rubber lasted longer and the continual stops of the leaders to change wheels, which featured the first century, suddenly halted.

That the engines stood the white-heat test of high speed as welll as they did is one of the remarkable chapters in the Mercurian epic that was penned at the Chicago speedway today. The opinion was common that before the checkered flag dropped, half the field would be eliminated and that the Chicago race would be as hard on cars as was the Indianapolis classic. This did not prove the case, however, as only six entries out of a total of twenty-one starters were permanently docked.

Three of the six cars which suffered incurable ailments were eliminated before the first 100 miles were completed, the Ogren breaking a bevel pinion housing on the twelfth lap, the Mercer Special being out with ignition trouble on the twenty-first lap and Wilcox’s Stutz sustaining a broken piston on the forty-fifth lap.

The other three unfortunates were interned for repairs before the three hundredth milestone was passed by the flying leaders, Limberg’s Sunbeam having a loose connecting rod bearing on the one hundred and tenth lap, O’Donnells Deusenberg burning out a bearing on the one hundred and 140th lap and Haupt’s Deusenberg suffering clutch trouble on the one hundred and forty-seventh lap.

Laurel for Harry Grant

There were heroes other than Resta, the winner, in today’s sensational gasoline derby. Harry Grant shares with the swarthy-skinned victor the honors of the day, for his non-stop achievement is as epoch-making as the record-smashing time of the conquering Italian. In the annals of speedway racing, no driver before today ever ddrove 500 miles without a stop, although at Indianapolis several cars have completed the five centuries without a change of tires. The best previous nonstop record was that of Barney Oldfield, who covered 301.81 miles at Corona last Thanksgiving day without a halt at an average speed of 86.2 miles per hour.

Grant earned the title of the king of perpetual motion of the gasoline circuit, but was forced to coast to his throne without the bark of his motor heralding his coronation. The tanks of his Sunbeam were empty when he started on his final lap of the 250 and only the car’s tremendous momentum carried him over the wire where Starter Wagner waited for him with the checkered flag.

Grant’s hands never left the steering wheel of the Sunbeam for 5 hours and 18 minutes. He sucked oranges, drank water and ate heard boiled eggs while traveling at a speed of 95 miles per hour. Compared to Resta’s Peugeot, the three Stutzes and the two Sunbeams imported from England for the Indianapolis and Chicago race, his car is an old-timer and noted for its fuel economy rather than for its speed. the tanks have a capacity for 50 gallons of gasoline and 7 gallons of oil and although they were full when Grant started on his remarkable dash, they were drained of their last drop when he coasted over the wire.

Tires Show Little Wear

The Silverton tires, with which Grant’s car was equipped, showed very little wear. The front casings looked almost as good as when they left the factory and only a small portion of the tread had been ground off the rears. The exhaust pipe of the car was broken, the rear half hanging precariously near the track, and several other minor parts were in equally as bad shape.

Another hero of the first race on the Chicago speedway is Bob Burman, who showed his gameness in a new way this morning. About an hour before the time for the start of the race, Burman discovered that a piston had seized during his demonstration lap and that it would be impossible for him to compete unless he replaced the burned piston and cleaned the scored cylinder.

Toil and Trouble for Burman

With the hearty consent of the other drivers, Referee Vissering postponed the time of start from 10 to 10:30 o’clock in order to give Burman an opportunity to make repairs on his injured Peugeot. With three mechanics, Bob removed his motor from the chassis, put it on a block in front of his pit and started to work. For concentration of energy and lightning repair work, Burman and his helpers established a new world’s record. There were no seconds wated, no motion lost in the exactling labor of dismantling the motor, cleaning the cylinder by lapping in a dummy pistion with coarse emery and replacing the seized piston.

Burman had his car on the starting line at 10:20 o’clock and was sent away with the other space gourmands 10 minutes later. He never drove as conservatively as today, perhaps because he feared to take chances with the hasty repair.

Porporato’s gameness was also put to the test, for he drove the entire 500 miles with poisonous exhaust gases pitting in his face and his head wreathed in the maladorous smoke of castor oil. This was caused by discharges from the breather pipe and leaks about the exhaust manifold, the smoke being forced through the driver’s compartment by an air draught. When asked how he endured this torture for more than 5 hours, he said that he stuck his head to one side periodically and filled his lungs with sufficient fresh air to last him for 1/2 mile.

Twenty-one of the twenty-four cars that qualified on the elimination trials accepted the issue when Starter Wagner sent the field away. The three Knight-motored entries, the F. R. P. cars, were withdrawn yesterday when their designer, Finley R. Porter, and their drivers decided that they had no chance of finishing. It was found impossible to give them oil enough without causing so much smoke as to be dangerous to the drivers of other cars. Rather than jeopardize his competitors, Porter withdrew his entries.

Limberg’s Sunbeam, which was barred under the A. A. A. three-car rule, although it made the required qualifying speed in the elimination trials, was permitted to start by the consent of officials and drivers.

The flying start was perfect and most spectacular. As at Indianapolis, the cars were lined up in rows of four each and were sent around the track for a preliminary lap at a speed of 75 miles per hour. Resta had the pole in the first tier and was flanked by the three Stutzes. No four race horses ever broke the barrier in as perfect alignment as the four thoroughbreds of steel. The front wheels of the first four cars struck the wire at the same second, and had it been the finish instead of the start of the contest, it would have been the deadest dead heat in the history of all sport from the time of the ancient Greeks to the present day.

The dedication of the Chicago board oval and the record-smashing victory of Dario Resta were witnessed by more than 80,000 spectators, who at the close of the day of sensations were convinced that the local track is the safest and fastest motor car course in the world. They saw the birth of a new epoch in motor car racing, an epoch that promises to be featured by the crowding of 500 miles within 5 fleeting hours before it is a year old.

It was a notable assemblage. Society was out. Governor Edward F. Dunne and Mayor William Hale Thompson motored to the track to pay the monarchs of velocity homage. The monster grandstand, stretching for 1/2 mile along the home stretch, was ablaze with color, and the parking spaces were black with motor cars. The throng, the noise, the color, the thrills reminded the sportmen of the old school of the gala day that is now but a memory, the day when all Chicago paid tribute to thoroughbred and jockey and packed the paddock and stands of Washington Park to cheer the winner of the American Derby.

Crowd Not Morbid

It was not a morbid crowd. Had it been it would have dispersed sadly disappointed, for there were no accidents. The only mishap of the day was when Louis Chevrolet’s Delage blew a rear tire in coming off the north turn onto the home stretch and skidded into the inside safety wall of the track. The veteran fought his wild mount and conquered it.

The Chicago speedway now is a civic institution. The astounding records established today and the unqualified success attendant upon its dedication has made it so.