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Show jUlllllllllimillllllllllltllllllillllllUlIlt: 1 Speakuuf off I IIPOTSl By ROBERT McSHANE 5 ttltawd by Wtitwn Ncwtpapw Uo niiiiiiiiimiiiiiiimmiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiirc IF WE had to pick a nickname for Uncle Sam's sports-loving nephews, our first and last choice would be "Speed." Whether It's in baseball, football, tennis, basketball you can pick your sport speed and drama are synonymous. It's the "fire ball," the "bullet pass," the "cannon ball serve," the "fast break" that bring the fans to their feet. Paradoxically, when we think of speed in competition we rarely think of one sport that's common to almost al-most every section of the country-automobile country-automobile racing. Compared with baseball or football it has but few loyal fans, yet hundreds of thousands thou-sands of speed-hungry persons thrill to dirt-track speed demons at county and state fairs from coast to coast Speed became an Important sporting sport-ing factor for the gasoline engine back In 1898 when the first record 1 effort to act up record time fo ne mile was made by one Cbasseloup l.aubat, In France, who drove a Jentaud at the then amaiing rate of 39.24 miles per hour. The good people of France were in a dither. That speed, In an automobile, was too great for the human anatomy to withstand. Hold Your Hats However, automobile racing really real-ly became a sport one year later when the first competition took place over a 78-mile course between Paris and Rouen, France. The same year a run was made from Paris to Bordeaux and return a total distance of 744 miles. The average speed was a resounding IS miles per hour. It remained for the former Chicago Chi-cago Times-Herald to pioneer racing in this country. The paper sponsored spon-sored a reliability run from the heart of the city to the suburbs and back-some back-some 54 miles. The year was 1895 and the winner J. F. Duryea, who drove a car of his own design at the terrific speed of 7 M miles per hour. That couldn't compare with a Tilden serve or a Feller fire ball, but It was burning up the road for an automobile of those days. As the number of cars increased and speeds became greater, there were more and more road races, each of longer distance and with more competitors. There was no rule book for these affairs only a verbal agreement among contestants. Auto racing lacked an official status until 1905, when Charles J. Glidden, a Cleveland millionaire, put up a trophy and a committee was organized organ-ized to frame rules to govern an annual road race. Along In 1907, when Frank Chance's Chicago Cubs were battling bat-tling it out with Detroit for the pennant pen-nant and the forward pass was just becoming part of football, it was becoming part or toolDau, u was decided that road races were too dangerous for both drivers and spectators. spec-tators. Thus use of public roads for speed competition was abandoned aban-doned and the speedway came into Its own. A form of the road race remains today, however, according to Barney Bar-ney Roos, chief engineer of Willys-Overland Willys-Overland Motors and long-time auto racing fan. Economy and stamina events have replaced actual speed competitions. Conducted under controlled con-trolled conditions and featuring stock cars, these runs are designed to test automobile performance, not to thrill spectators. Racing Capital For the fans, speed is still the turnstile spinner. The first motor speedway was built at Indianapolis. Success there led to construction of similar racing ovals In other parts of the country. But Indianapolis alone became a colossal success, and the gigantic structures that mushroomed up In New York and other large cities eventually were dismantled. Hoosierdom's racing capital was built In 1909, completed In 1910, and has a paid attendance capacity of approximately 200,000. The first international 500-mile race was run in 1911 and the winner was Ray Harroun, who covered the distance in a Marmon at an average speed of 74.59 miles per hour. Floyd Davis and Mauri Rose captured the latest event in Rose's four-cylinder Lencki Special at an average speed of 115.2 miles an hour. Although six. eight, 12 and even 16-cylinder racing cars also compete in the event, four-cylinder Jobs have captured cap-tured 10 firsts in the last 25 years. And it Isn't out of place to mention men-tion the gent who has traveled faster on land than any other person in history. He Is John R. Cobb, Englishman, Eng-lishman, who sent his Railton Red Lion over the salt flats of Bonneville, Utah, at 369.7 miles an hour. Which is exactly 362.2 miles an hour faster than Mr. Duryea's record rec-ord of 1895. SPORT SHORTS The contract of Fred Corcoran. PGA tournament manager, has been ; extended three years. ' c. Golfers Jimmy Demaret and Ben Hogan will begin a barnstorming 1 tour of South America in October. H Dave McKay, star rookie of the ' Chicago Blackhawks, has been called to service in the Canadian army. i ft The 1935 All-Star baseball game drew 69.812 cash customers to Cleveland's Cleve-land's Municipal stadium. |