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Show jl Four Former Champs Will Be at ! Wheel in Annual Auto Speed Classic : 4 The four former champions in the wheel are: Top, Howard Wilcox; Ralph De Palma; left, Rene Thomas; right, Jules Goux. By DKAS SNYDER INDIANAPOLIS. May 25. Side by sido with the hands of the driver, tho invisible hands of death ever clutch tho steering wheel of the roarig auto demons of speed. They wait their chance as the miles slip by. and they are not always cheated. There have boon some bad plla-ups plla-ups on the Indianapolis Speedway. Soldom has thcro been a year that somo entry did not drive the death j car. The distance around the rim of the track is two and one-half miles. Thcro are some bad curves to hold a high-power racing machine on. and the class of men, who deal in speed, take their chances with fate in order to win. This year's International 500-mllc swocpstako classic is booked for Mav 31. Mechanically, tho event represents repre-sents the last minute production, in spoed and power and endurance. It Is tho dream of engineers to get the highest Bpeed and tho most power out of tho smallest sized engine. This year marks another step In their engineering en-gineering skill, for It is tho first time in history that machines of 1S3 cubic Inches piston displacements and lliiuu pounds in weight will bo seen In competition. , And the drivers they represent the most export and skilled Jockeys of the wheel of speed of both the old and the now wnrid. Of tho 30 entries four of them are former winners of the Indianapolis grind. They know every brick in the course, but so far no former winner has over repeated. Ono of them may pull the thing this year. The quartetto of former winners, who will roll up to the tape, " are.: Jules Goux. 1913; Reno Thomas, 1911; Ralph De Palma, 1015, and Howard Wilcox, 1919. v De Palma's record of driving the 500 miles with a Mercedes, for an average of S9.S4 miles an hour,' still stands. Wilcox came the nearest to it last year with an average of 87.84 miles per hour in a Peugeot boat. Do Palma and Thomas are teamed this year with Ballot racers. Also Goux and Wilcox wlllj drive tho same make of cars, flying the Peugeot colors, the only car to win tho sweepstakes sweep-stakes prize three different times. The French boat is a hard ono for American cars to outstrip. Tho race of tho four former champions cham-pions will naturally be tho center of interest. They will try to out-game out-game each other and also stem the assault of tho individual entries. They will be pushed by other stars of caual brilliance. Among them Is' Tommy Milton, creator of a new w.orld's record in the sprints for 20 miles. Ho and Jimmy Murphy, recent winner of the Inaugural ,raco on the Los Angeles speedway, will pilot a pair of Deu-senborgs, Deu-senborgs, Thd Dcuscnberg Is an American car, land the one on which hopo Is pinned to wrest speed supremacy from foreign for-eign invaders.- A pair of Eddies will lie driving Deusenborgs. too. They arc Ed-dlo Ed-dlo O'Donnol and Eddie Hearne. Betting makes both the United States and France favorites. We aro living in a motor age. Just as tho automobile motor contributed con-tributed to tho rapid development of motors to i.avlgato tho air, now in turn tho flying machine cnglno has suggested ideas for higher speed racing rac-ing bugs on I. ground. Speed and danger Increase In about tho same proportions. And tholr hands will both bo clasped on the steering wheel in tho blue ribbon ovent of autodom at Indianapolis. |