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Show Cliff Durant Wins Santa Monica Race 05 & & ff- Walter Melcher Sustains Fatal In juries CLIFF DURANT AND HIS CHEVROLET SPECIAL. 'it -d"?! &Z:4 iS Winner Does 81 Miles an Hour; De Pal ma Gives Speed Exhibition. By Universal Service. LOS ANGELES, March 15. Cliff Durant, driving Chrevolet Special Spe-cial iS"o. 1, went out in the lead at the start of today's Saita Monica road race, stayed in front all the way and won the 250-mile speed classic with ease. He made the distance in 3 hours & minutes and 45 seconds, an average of 81 miles an hour. Eddie, Ilearne, in a Chevrolet Special, finished second; Lecocq drove his Newman Special Spe-cial into third position, and Eddie Pillion Pill-ion finished fourth with a Hudsou Special. Spe-cial. By a stranpe coincidence, the wiu-ners wiu-ners finished in the orders of their numbers num-bers one, two and four. Two wrecks featured I lie first few minutes of the event. Hudson Xo. 17 collided with a telephone pole at the Soldiers' home turn, smashing the car and fatally injuring YTaltcr Melcher, the driver. Christensen, the mechanician, mechani-cian, escaped injury. Melcher suffered internal injuries and a. compound fracture frac-ture of the right leg. Ho died at the hospital. Eoscoe Sarlos, driving the Kpamer Special No. 1-1, hit the bank at Eighth and Wilshire and smashed his ear. The ra-ce was witnessed by 100,000 spectators. Preceding the main event Kalph De Palma, in his Packard Special,- drove a lap of the course against time. He made an average speed of 99.36 miles an honr, and established a new western speed record. Fourteen cars started in the race. Hearne ran a non-stop race. Durant stopped twice for tire changes, losing 26 seconds each time. "vV. W. Brown was the only driver besides Hearne to make a non-stop record. Of the fourteen cars that started only three besides the prize wiuners remained re-mained to be flagged down. They were: Brown, who had fifth place in his thirty-second lap; Omar Toft, who held, sixth place in his thirty-second lap, and Edward Kaster, who vas in seventh position po-sition in his thirty-first lap. Elliott, Cooper, Al Melcher and Eos-coe Eos-coe Sarles went out with mechanical troubles. There were no new records hung up. but there were manv fast stretches to thrill the crowd. Elliott. Pullen and Brown especially liept the spectators keyed up to a high pitch of excitement by attempting to pass one another in front of the stand. The crowd was the largest ever assembled as-sembled on the course, according to race officials. They gathered closely under a clear sky with- hovering airplanes adding add-ing picturesquely to the scene. |