10,000 Miles - National's Plans

This article, published February 7, 1909 in the Indianapolis Star, reveals apparent discussions within the National Motor Vehicle Company to run 1,000 miles a day for 10 consecutive days. The venue was to be the Indianapolis Motor Speedway which had not even broken ground yet on its construction at the time of this publication. The article also reports that the company had taken a 10 day lease on the yet unconstructed facility but given that National Company Officer Arthur C. Newby was one of four co-founders that arrangement should not have been hard to come by.
 
This point was brought up again in a digest column (attachment NationalIMSnote032409) published in the Indianapolis Star on March 24, 1909. This article, published during the 1909 Indianapolis Auto Show and the beginning stages of the construction of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, contains several items about events going on around the automobile industry and motor sports. One great example is a reference to R.H. Losey of the Buick-Losey Company (Indianapolis Buick dealership and garage) and how he set up a telegraphic link to the speed tournament being conducted at Daytona Beach during the same time.
 
National officer George Dickson bragged about National's record breaking achievements of the past, especially the 100 mile and 24 hour record runs of November 1905. Seemingly Dickson offered these examples to establish company credibility for the 1,000 miles a day run, which is touched on in the article.
 
Another mention of the 10,000 mile National challenge at IMS came when the May 1, 1909 Indianapolis Star published an item as part of a digest column (attachment NewbyonIMS050109) when they caught up with Newby upon his return from the New York Automobile Show. He reported that expectations for the Speedway were high and he intended to act quickly to fulfill them with "fast endurance" run described here. He also reported that the Indianapolis Auto Show was well respected nationally and that while the Indianapolis-based auto companies were not volume producers they were respected for the quality and craftsmanship of their products. That comment seem prophetic given that all the Indianapolis manufacturers eventually shuttered their doors or, as in the case of Marmon, morphed into something beyond the automobile industry.