The Crittenden Automotive Library

TURN TO AUTO RACE

Topics: Grand Prize

TURN TO AUTO RACE

The Indianapolis Star
16 November 1908

MUCH INTEREST IN CONTEST

MOST FAMOUS DRIVERS IN THE WORLD WILL CONTROL MACHINES IN THE GRAND PRIZE EVENT AT SAVANNAH THANKSGIVING.

SAVANNAH, Ga., Nov. 15.—The principal sporting event in the automobile world this fall will be the race for the grand prize under the auspices of the Automobile Club of America at Savannah, to be held on Thanksgiving day, and the small car race which is to be run Nov. 25, the day before Thanksgiving. Both races will be run over the public roads of Chatham County, the short car race being over a course practically ten miles in length, and that for the larger cars being over a specially constructed course of twenty-five miles.

The big race will be 400 miles in length and that for the small cars 200 miles. The prize in the big car race will be a gold cup valued at $5,000, donated by the Automobile Club of America. Both events are international in scope and there are now on the grounds drivers from Italy, France, Germany and America. The big race is known officially as “The Grand Prize Race,” and the smaller one as the “International Light Car Race.”

The greatest interest is felt in the grand prize race, in which the most famous drivers and cars in the world will compete. There are twenty-two entries in this race.

The course is perfectly level and was built by convict labor and surfaced with Augusta gravel, a composition that admits of very rapid speed being made. It is expected that several new world's records will be hung up on the course in the big event. Those who have witnessed races over the Vanderbilt Cup course and at Ormond Beach declare the best time on those courses will be readily eclipsed by the drivers on Thanksgiving day. The Ormond Beach record is seventy-seven miles an hour. It is believed that at least eighty-five miles an hour will be made by the winner of the gold prize over the Savannah course.

The course for the long and short races will be carefully guarded by state militia.

Contest is International.

Being international in character, the race will attract attention widely beyond the confines of the United States. Invitations have been extended to the President of the United States and the members of his cabinet to attend, and also the Emperor of Germany, the King of Italy and the President of France.

A feature of the occasion will be the entertainment of representatives of automobile clubs from many cities within a radius of 500 miles of Savannah.

A bureau of information has been established at the Union Depot and all trains will be met by official attendants during the week preceding the races, who will give out cards which those who wish accomodations may fill out. It is hoped in this way to be able to tell readily where to send visitors, so that they can be accomodated with the kind of rooms they desire.

The judges of the two races will be chosen from the members of the Automobile Club of America and the Savannah Automobile Club. They will be announced in a few days.

The following cars and drivers have been entered for the Grand Prize race:

Italy (car and driver)—Fiat, Nazarro; Fiat, Wagner; Fiat, De Palma; Itala, Cagno; Itala, Fournier.

France (car and driver)—Renault, Szisz; Renault, Strang; Deitrich, Duray; Clement-Bayard, Hautvast; Clement-Bayard, Rigal.

Germany (car and driver)—Benz, Hemery; Benz, Hanriot; Benz, Erle; Mercedes, Saizer; Mercedes, Pogge.

America (car and driver)—Lozier, Michener; Acme, Leonard Zengle; B. L. M., Williams; Chadwick, Willie Houpt; Simplex, Seymour; National, Stricker; Buick, —————.

The international light car race entries include: America, four Maxwells, four Buicks, three Chalmers-Detroits, one American Aristocrat; Italy, one Isotta and one Lancia; France, one Gregoire, one S. P. O.

Robertson, the winner of the Vanderbilt Cup race, will drive the Gregoire in the small car race, and it is expected he will drive the Buick in the big race. Strang, who is to drive a French Renault in the Grand Prize, won the Savannah Trophy in the Chassis race of last March.

It is hoped to get these drivers pitted against each other. Nazzaro, who will drive a Fiat, is credited with having made the fastest time ever made in a road race when he went 74.3 miles an hour at Bologne, Italy. Wagner, who will also drive a Fiat, won the Vanderbilt Cup race a year ago. De Palma, another Fiat driver, holds the world's record for a mile on a circular track. It will be readily seen that the material is entered in this grand race for the most exciting automobile racing contest the world has ever witnessed.