Marmon, Others Enter Time Trials

The article in attachment IMStrials120509 was originally published in the Indianapolis Star on December 5, 1909. It reports on the growing list of entries for the December 17 and 18, 1909 time trials event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This was the first event after the track was paved with bricks.
 
The first entry for the event came from Indianapolis-based Nordyke & Marmon with a Marmon stock chassis racer. A Cole "Thirty" model was the second entry. Much discussed in the days leading up to the event were the high horsepower machines of Lewis Strang (Fiat) and Walter Christie (front wheel drive Christie). Strang's 200 HP Fiat had been driven at Brooklands by Felice Nazzaro at an amazing (and contested by historians) speed of 128 MPH. Strang had claimed a number of American speed records at the inaugural racing event at the new Atlanta Speedway the previous month.
 
Christie took a tour of the course with Ernie Moross driving a touring car the day previous to the article's publication. He was impressed with what he saw.
 
"This is what I have been hoping for for a long time, and if my car will not do the fastest time on the records here the track cannot be blames. The turns in the present condition are equal to better than two miles a minute, and a regular stock chassis car could do better than eighty miles an hour in an average distance race. A better place for speed could not be chosen, and the track, which is a perfect plane surface and precludes all rolling, will bring the records of the world to Indianapolis."
 
The article references the American Automobile Association (AAA) classes of cars to be run as well as the distances of the runs. This was covered in more detail in another article from the previous day's Star.
 
The article in this attachment also reports that the new stands and garages were complete and a ceremony to lay the final brick was planned. That last brick was reportedly made of 85 pounds of troy silver and gold plated. Exactly why the Speedway made these claims is hard to know. The "brick" is now generally believed to have been made of the same material - I believe brass - as the Wheeler-Schebler Company's carburetors. Speedway Co-Founder Frank Wheeler was president of that company.
 
A second, smaller article is part of the same attachment. This article is about the success of National Motor Vehicle Company entries - their "forty" model - in the Fort Lee Hill Climb near New York earlier in the week. Tom Kincaid (this driver's name is spelled differently, it seems, in every news report) drove to victory in record setting time of 56 seconds. The previous record was one minute, two seconds. A National "Thirty-Five," finished second with a driver mentioned only as "Heermann" at the wheel.
 
George McCutcheon of New York drove another National "Forty" to victory in three events at Ossining, New York. This was 0.7 mile course with muddy conditions. McCutcheon covered the distance in one minute, three seconds a full 17 seconds faster than his nearest competitor. There were only three racers in that event. In the other events McCutcheon competed against more powerful 60 HP cars. The National was consistent, recording times of one minute, three seconds in one and a time just 0.6 seconds slower in the other one. His nearest competitor was 7.0 and 7.6 seconds slower in each of the two events respectively.