That Hotbead of Road Racing - Elgin, IL (?)
08-17-2008, 10:24 AM
#1
That Hotbead of Road Racing - Elgin, IL (?)
While searching for other things, I came across this and it may interest some of you.
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Taken from http://www.elginhistory.com/eaah/
4. The Roaring Road
Soon after automobiles were invented, races were conducted to test their speed and endurance. They publicized the make, provided a means of experimenting with innovations and attracted paying spectators. The Chicago Motor Club had been one of the sponsors of a disappointing road race at Crown Point, Indiana, in 1909. An Elgin auto enthusiast, Frank B. "Tootie" Wood, invited the club to consider a better alternative he found near Elgin. Using what are now Larkin Avenue, McLean Boulevard, Highland Avenue, and Coombs Road, the proposed circuit was nearly eight and one-half miles long with no steep hills, railroad crossings or towns to be passed through. It provided straightaways, where cars could make top speed, and sharp turns that required driving skills. Club officials were impressed with the speed potential after a tour and gave their approval.
Local residents incorporated the Elgin Automobile Road Race Association in the spring of 1910 and raised capital through the sale of stock. Additional funds were to be obtained from ticket sales. The money was used to purchase frontage rights from the farmers, who generally were not enthused by the project; grade, widen, and oil the road bed; pay the National Guardsmen and police for crowd control; and provide for cash prizes, liability insurance and extensive advertising. The Elgin National Watch Company donated a big trophy for the main event. It stood forty inches tall, contained forty pounds of silver, and cost upwards of four thousand dollars.
Automobile manufacturers quickly agreed to send their cars and such famed drivers as Barney Oldfield, Tommy Milton, Al Livingston and Ray Harroun. The makes entered included the National, Benz, Simplex, Marmon, Jackson and Abbott-Detroit. Work on the cars was performed in the company camps set up around the course in farmers' sheds, corn cribs and barns. Interest was aroused all over the country, and Elgin took on a festive air with banners and bunting. For days prior to the races, hotels and restaurants were crowded with visitors who came to talk to the participants and line the fences to time their favorites during practice sessions. Among the onlookers was Jack Johnson, newly crowned world's heavyweight boxing champion and a fancier of expensive automobiles, who wanted to burn up the course himself. The sheriff hurriedly posted twenty miles-per-hour speed limit signs for regular traffic. Johnson attempted to set up a match race with Barney Oldfield and was disappointed when the other champion declined.
Racers drew numbers, which were placed on their cars, to see which one would leave the starting line first. A car was started every thirty seconds to avoid jamming the track. It was difficult for the spectators to tell which car had won until the judges' decision was announced, because each entry was timed individually. Every car had a riding mechanic who watched the gauges and warned the driver if a faster car was approaching behind him. The slower car then had to let the other cars pass or be disqualified for hogging the road, which averaged about twenty feet in width. Flagmen were placed at key points around the circuit to signal the driver when to proceed or slow up. The best viewing point for spectators was Britton's Hill on the south leg, where one-half mile of track was visible in each direction. Those who chose to watch from the inside of the course were not allowed to cross during the races.
The smaller cars competed on Friday, August 26th, in three events run at the same time but for different cubic engine displacements. These contests gave an opportunity to lesser known drivers. Henry Ford was present to enter two of his Model T's, but the cars were disqualified before the race because they didn't meet weight requirements.
Cannon signaled the start of the big race the next day. The Elgin National was a 305-mile grind. The winner was Ralph Mulford, who drove his Lozier at an average speed of 62.5 miles per hour over the entire thirty-six laps with but one pit stop for gas, water and oil. He received a cash prize of one thousand dollars, and it was hard-earned. He had practiced for ten days before the race, driving twenty-five times around the course each day, and knew its every bump and bend. As the race wore on, hour after hour, dust rose and the graveled road roughened. Corners became deeply rutted and dangerous. To maintain his winning pace under these conditions, Mulford had to strive for speeds of at least sixty miles per hour on the north leg, and seventy miles per hour on the south leg. His top speed at times exceeded eighty going down Britton's Hill.
The first running was a decided success. Profits were more than ten thousand dollars, and the Elgin Automobile Road Race Association declared a fifty percent dividend. Businessmen were delighted. Metropolitan newspapers throughout the United States carried front-page stories, and Sunday editions printed feature articles, illustrated with pictures of drivers and the course. Trade magazines carried special accounts. "The advertising that came with the races is the kind of advertising that can't be estimated in dollars and cents," trumpeted the boosters, "because the great bulk of it was advertising that money won't buy."12
Plans were made to make races annual affairs. They were held again in 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915, 1919 and 1920, and revived for one more time in 1933. There were no races during 1916, 1917 and 1918 due to wartime restrictions. Elgin became a major automobile racing center, the "Vanderbilt of the West."
The original races were strictly stock chassis events. The cars, most of them with only four cylinders, were run just as they left the factory, except for removing windshields and fenders. Then in 1912, specially built racers were allowed to compete, and such cars as the Stutz, Mercer, Mercedes and Duesenberg joined the field. The length was reduced to 301 miles beginning in 1913 with the rounding of Hairpin Turn in the northwest comer. This lessened the possibility of accidents. The cars changed, too. By 1915 they were all equipped with wire wheels. When the races were resumed in 1919, the cars had streamlined bodies and pointed tails. Some had four-wheel brakes, which enabled the driver to approach the turns at greater speed.
Drivers had to cope with stones thrown by the tires of cars ahead of them, careless spectators who broke through barriers, burned out bearings, cracked bushings, stuck valves, thrown tire rims, and one year-1919-with roofing tacks sprinkled over the track by vandals. Of the starting field of twenty-eight in the 1914 contest, only five finished. The races were not without accidents. The worst year was 1911, when a portion of the main grandstand collapsed, plunging scores of spectators to the ground. It had been hastily constructed to seat an overflow crowd of more than seventy thousand. Ralph Ireland was killed in a practice session. In the main event, Dave Buck and his mechanic, Sam Jacobs, lost their lives when their Pope-Hartford threw a tire and somersaulted out of control. The association had difficulty obtaining insurance the following year. With little time to spare, Lloyd's of London apparently agreed to underwrite a policy. Luckily, there were no accidents, because it was learned after the race that after accepting fifteen hundred dollars, the insurers had wanted another one thousand dollars, and when it was not received, had canceled out.
The deaths aroused one clergyman to label the races "more cruel than the brutal bullfights of Spain" and "no better in spirit than the gladiatorial contests of the early centuries in the arena of the Roman Coliseum."13
The most spectacular fatal crash occurred in 1914, when Spencer Wishart's big Mercer grazed the hub cap of a car he was overtaking, shot crazily through the air above a row of spectators, and slammed into a tree. The car struck one bystander, hurling him to the ground and leaving a tire mark on his shirt but no broken bones. Neither the driver nor the mechanic, Jack Jenter, survived.
The perils faced by the racers were described by Eddie Rickenbacker, who was bumped by a car he was passing in that 1914 contest. "I hit the ditch, just as poor Spence had done minutes before. I went up the other side of the ditch, hit the fence and bounced back down and up the other side. A telephone pole loomed. My mechanic dived under the cowl. I cut to the left, swung down through the ditch, bounced off the fence again and came back heading for another telephone pole. Back under the cowl went the mechanic. Down into the ditch I went again, careened off the fence and here came the third pole. I finally wrestled the car back onto the road between poles, but I had bent an axle, and it twisted off."
Ralph DePalma, one of the immortals of auto racing, was the most successful competitor. He won six Elgin road races, three of them the main event. Stories of his actions on and off the track are legion. In 1913 he was tardy in returning the trophy and nearly forfeited the five thousand dollar bond he had posted. In the 1920 race, he overran Graveyard Bend at Udina, continued down a ravine, drove his French-built Ballot into a cow path and was back on the course without damage. At one point in the same contest, he and Ralph Mulford charged into Hornbeek Turn. Mulford overshot it and roared toward Elgin on Larkin Avenue. DePahna rounded the curve, shouting to his mechanic, "Mulford's going downtown for lunch!"15
With the passage of time, the speed of cars made road racing perilous because of the absence of effective protection for bystanders. The driving public, now growing in numbers, objected to the road closings necessary for this type of competition. Farmers disliked the interruptions at threshing time. From the date of the last Elgin race on August 28, 1920, until the sport was revived in Elgin on August 26, 1933, there was no major road race held in the United States. The revival was a financial disaster, and as cars roared past the grandstands at better than one hundred miles per hour, even the most ardent boosters realized that there were no adequate spectator safeguards.
The big cars no longer whip around the Graveyard Bend, "aviate" over the Hump or race down Britton's Hill, clouds of blue smoke and dust trailing behind them. They have all been flagged across the finish fine to become a part of Elgin's heritage. Only a marker remains, dedicated to the drivers, mechanics and pitmen who by their skill and daring thrilled crowds and contributed to the development of the modem automobile.
.................................................. ..................
The website has a few pictures of the event that i'm not posting. But, I will post this track map.
.................................................. ...................
Taken from http://www.elginhistory.com/eaah/
4. The Roaring Road
Soon after automobiles were invented, races were conducted to test their speed and endurance. They publicized the make, provided a means of experimenting with innovations and attracted paying spectators. The Chicago Motor Club had been one of the sponsors of a disappointing road race at Crown Point, Indiana, in 1909. An Elgin auto enthusiast, Frank B. "Tootie" Wood, invited the club to consider a better alternative he found near Elgin. Using what are now Larkin Avenue, McLean Boulevard, Highland Avenue, and Coombs Road, the proposed circuit was nearly eight and one-half miles long with no steep hills, railroad crossings or towns to be passed through. It provided straightaways, where cars could make top speed, and sharp turns that required driving skills. Club officials were impressed with the speed potential after a tour and gave their approval.
Local residents incorporated the Elgin Automobile Road Race Association in the spring of 1910 and raised capital through the sale of stock. Additional funds were to be obtained from ticket sales. The money was used to purchase frontage rights from the farmers, who generally were not enthused by the project; grade, widen, and oil the road bed; pay the National Guardsmen and police for crowd control; and provide for cash prizes, liability insurance and extensive advertising. The Elgin National Watch Company donated a big trophy for the main event. It stood forty inches tall, contained forty pounds of silver, and cost upwards of four thousand dollars.
Automobile manufacturers quickly agreed to send their cars and such famed drivers as Barney Oldfield, Tommy Milton, Al Livingston and Ray Harroun. The makes entered included the National, Benz, Simplex, Marmon, Jackson and Abbott-Detroit. Work on the cars was performed in the company camps set up around the course in farmers' sheds, corn cribs and barns. Interest was aroused all over the country, and Elgin took on a festive air with banners and bunting. For days prior to the races, hotels and restaurants were crowded with visitors who came to talk to the participants and line the fences to time their favorites during practice sessions. Among the onlookers was Jack Johnson, newly crowned world's heavyweight boxing champion and a fancier of expensive automobiles, who wanted to burn up the course himself. The sheriff hurriedly posted twenty miles-per-hour speed limit signs for regular traffic. Johnson attempted to set up a match race with Barney Oldfield and was disappointed when the other champion declined.
Racers drew numbers, which were placed on their cars, to see which one would leave the starting line first. A car was started every thirty seconds to avoid jamming the track. It was difficult for the spectators to tell which car had won until the judges' decision was announced, because each entry was timed individually. Every car had a riding mechanic who watched the gauges and warned the driver if a faster car was approaching behind him. The slower car then had to let the other cars pass or be disqualified for hogging the road, which averaged about twenty feet in width. Flagmen were placed at key points around the circuit to signal the driver when to proceed or slow up. The best viewing point for spectators was Britton's Hill on the south leg, where one-half mile of track was visible in each direction. Those who chose to watch from the inside of the course were not allowed to cross during the races.
The smaller cars competed on Friday, August 26th, in three events run at the same time but for different cubic engine displacements. These contests gave an opportunity to lesser known drivers. Henry Ford was present to enter two of his Model T's, but the cars were disqualified before the race because they didn't meet weight requirements.
Cannon signaled the start of the big race the next day. The Elgin National was a 305-mile grind. The winner was Ralph Mulford, who drove his Lozier at an average speed of 62.5 miles per hour over the entire thirty-six laps with but one pit stop for gas, water and oil. He received a cash prize of one thousand dollars, and it was hard-earned. He had practiced for ten days before the race, driving twenty-five times around the course each day, and knew its every bump and bend. As the race wore on, hour after hour, dust rose and the graveled road roughened. Corners became deeply rutted and dangerous. To maintain his winning pace under these conditions, Mulford had to strive for speeds of at least sixty miles per hour on the north leg, and seventy miles per hour on the south leg. His top speed at times exceeded eighty going down Britton's Hill.
The first running was a decided success. Profits were more than ten thousand dollars, and the Elgin Automobile Road Race Association declared a fifty percent dividend. Businessmen were delighted. Metropolitan newspapers throughout the United States carried front-page stories, and Sunday editions printed feature articles, illustrated with pictures of drivers and the course. Trade magazines carried special accounts. "The advertising that came with the races is the kind of advertising that can't be estimated in dollars and cents," trumpeted the boosters, "because the great bulk of it was advertising that money won't buy."12
Plans were made to make races annual affairs. They were held again in 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915, 1919 and 1920, and revived for one more time in 1933. There were no races during 1916, 1917 and 1918 due to wartime restrictions. Elgin became a major automobile racing center, the "Vanderbilt of the West."
The original races were strictly stock chassis events. The cars, most of them with only four cylinders, were run just as they left the factory, except for removing windshields and fenders. Then in 1912, specially built racers were allowed to compete, and such cars as the Stutz, Mercer, Mercedes and Duesenberg joined the field. The length was reduced to 301 miles beginning in 1913 with the rounding of Hairpin Turn in the northwest comer. This lessened the possibility of accidents. The cars changed, too. By 1915 they were all equipped with wire wheels. When the races were resumed in 1919, the cars had streamlined bodies and pointed tails. Some had four-wheel brakes, which enabled the driver to approach the turns at greater speed.
Drivers had to cope with stones thrown by the tires of cars ahead of them, careless spectators who broke through barriers, burned out bearings, cracked bushings, stuck valves, thrown tire rims, and one year-1919-with roofing tacks sprinkled over the track by vandals. Of the starting field of twenty-eight in the 1914 contest, only five finished. The races were not without accidents. The worst year was 1911, when a portion of the main grandstand collapsed, plunging scores of spectators to the ground. It had been hastily constructed to seat an overflow crowd of more than seventy thousand. Ralph Ireland was killed in a practice session. In the main event, Dave Buck and his mechanic, Sam Jacobs, lost their lives when their Pope-Hartford threw a tire and somersaulted out of control. The association had difficulty obtaining insurance the following year. With little time to spare, Lloyd's of London apparently agreed to underwrite a policy. Luckily, there were no accidents, because it was learned after the race that after accepting fifteen hundred dollars, the insurers had wanted another one thousand dollars, and when it was not received, had canceled out.
The deaths aroused one clergyman to label the races "more cruel than the brutal bullfights of Spain" and "no better in spirit than the gladiatorial contests of the early centuries in the arena of the Roman Coliseum."13
The most spectacular fatal crash occurred in 1914, when Spencer Wishart's big Mercer grazed the hub cap of a car he was overtaking, shot crazily through the air above a row of spectators, and slammed into a tree. The car struck one bystander, hurling him to the ground and leaving a tire mark on his shirt but no broken bones. Neither the driver nor the mechanic, Jack Jenter, survived.
The perils faced by the racers were described by Eddie Rickenbacker, who was bumped by a car he was passing in that 1914 contest. "I hit the ditch, just as poor Spence had done minutes before. I went up the other side of the ditch, hit the fence and bounced back down and up the other side. A telephone pole loomed. My mechanic dived under the cowl. I cut to the left, swung down through the ditch, bounced off the fence again and came back heading for another telephone pole. Back under the cowl went the mechanic. Down into the ditch I went again, careened off the fence and here came the third pole. I finally wrestled the car back onto the road between poles, but I had bent an axle, and it twisted off."
Ralph DePalma, one of the immortals of auto racing, was the most successful competitor. He won six Elgin road races, three of them the main event. Stories of his actions on and off the track are legion. In 1913 he was tardy in returning the trophy and nearly forfeited the five thousand dollar bond he had posted. In the 1920 race, he overran Graveyard Bend at Udina, continued down a ravine, drove his French-built Ballot into a cow path and was back on the course without damage. At one point in the same contest, he and Ralph Mulford charged into Hornbeek Turn. Mulford overshot it and roared toward Elgin on Larkin Avenue. DePahna rounded the curve, shouting to his mechanic, "Mulford's going downtown for lunch!"15
With the passage of time, the speed of cars made road racing perilous because of the absence of effective protection for bystanders. The driving public, now growing in numbers, objected to the road closings necessary for this type of competition. Farmers disliked the interruptions at threshing time. From the date of the last Elgin race on August 28, 1920, until the sport was revived in Elgin on August 26, 1933, there was no major road race held in the United States. The revival was a financial disaster, and as cars roared past the grandstands at better than one hundred miles per hour, even the most ardent boosters realized that there were no adequate spectator safeguards.
The big cars no longer whip around the Graveyard Bend, "aviate" over the Hump or race down Britton's Hill, clouds of blue smoke and dust trailing behind them. They have all been flagged across the finish fine to become a part of Elgin's heritage. Only a marker remains, dedicated to the drivers, mechanics and pitmen who by their skill and daring thrilled crowds and contributed to the development of the modem automobile.
.................................................. ..................
The website has a few pictures of the event that i'm not posting. But, I will post this track map.
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