Show Backseat Driving By FRANK K BAKER Telegram Sports Editor Just as every cloud is supposed to have its silver lining lining lin lin- un- un ing Mayor Ab Jenkins discovered this week that he was really lucky last summer when a broken exhaust pipe forced him to end his endurance running after nearly 16 hours of driving on the Bonneville salt flats Ab was a discouraged driver as he wheeled his Mormon Meteor III into the pits Still suffering from third degree burns he had sustained when the car caught fire 10 days earlier the racing mayor was a forlorn figure as he fought to clear his lungs of the fumes which had all but asphyxiated him during those concluding laps S Although he had boosted his list of records substantially Ab was terribly disappointed at not being able table to continue for forthe forthe forthe the anticipated 24 hours When engineers took the huge motor apart this week though to recondition it for the forthcoming racing season season sea sea- son soil they discovered that a defective connecting rod was wason wason wason on the verge of breaking loose One of the two studs holding holding holding hold hold- ing it to the crankshaft had been sheared completely off and vas Was bouncing around in the bottom of the crankcase This had of course loosened the bearing so that the rod was only partly held to the thc crankshaft Frank Phillip bar one of th the engineers working on the motor shook his head when he saw the break It couldn't have lasted many more minutes Five or ten perhaps At the most not more than half an hour and with Ab thundering along at m m. p. p h. h I hate to think what would have lave happened to that motor when that piece of metal really broke loose Abs Ab's son Marvin and Bill Oliver have been helping recondition the huge cylinder 12 airplane motor built by the Wright Curtiss plant They have already fitted a new set of main bearings put in new connecting rods and a general crankcase assembly i When the work is completed the valves will have been touched up the oiling system will be improved and a new type exhaust stack will be installed The exhaust pipe was constructed constructed constructed con con- of both stainless and ordinary steel last rast year and the failure of these two two materials to reach similar expansion under the terrific temperatures of the exhaust caused it to break open in several places Fumes poured through these cracks into the drivers driver's cockpit of course and all but strangled and blinded Ab before he could get the powerful car stopped The big V-type V motor is equipped with twin ignition meaning that it carries 24 or two for each cylinder and has two magnetos and two distributors or one for each bank of cylinders Marvin ri now w 21 years of age has already obtained a drivers driver's license for test or endurance driving and will share the assignments assignments assignments assign assign- ments at the wheel with his father and mayor Hell He'll also do much of the driving when the crew takes the car to the salt flats to be loosened up or broken in preparatory to the big run According to Marvin they'll drive the car about 1 15 hours during this exercise just coasting along at about to miles per hour I Despite his duties as mayor Ab is eager cager to pave have another brief whirl across across across' the salt saIt flats lIe He already holds 94 records records records rec rec- in solo eff efforts and shares 50 with other pilots who spelled him briefly at the wheel making a total of records behind his his' name Right now Ab is dreaming of running this month S Continued on ou the Following Page i f 10 J k IJ 1 t J cl i 1 II f c So J i t. t d |