1909 Racing Digest - Ty Cobb

The article in the attachment IMSNews is from the Indianapolis News and was published the week of October 18, 1909. I am unfortunately uncertain of exactly which day. The digital copy isn't great, but it is legible with patience. The quality is limited by the source material, library microfilm records.
 
It briefly touches on several topics and I file under the December 1909 time trials at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway both because that is the lead and it is another corroboration of track Founder Carl Fisher's goal of making sure the newspapers would summarize the year of motor racing with the report that all the significant speed records had been accomplished at his facility. These bragging rights were deemed extremely valuable at the dawn of early Speedway development. The big rival at the time was the two-mile red clay oval in Atlanta.
 
Speedway management announced some suspicious "analysis" that proved that the brick surface would be "25 percent faster than gravel." This was the age of legendary ballyhoo and while it was a safe bet the durable bricks would be faster than dirt, gravel, or cinders my guess is there was no true scientific research to back that up.
 
The next item concerns some confusion around the previous Saturday's French Lick reliability run held October 16. Apparently, the "confetti car," an official car granted a head start with the mission of strewing confetti on the road behind it as a way to let competitors know they were on the right path, had gotten off course. This created confusion in the finish as Chris Gardner, driving a Marmon, had taken the original route to finish first. He had been awarded the original cup, a gift of Tom Taggart. The problem was that William Atkins, in a Packard, had dutifully followed the confetti car which was a longer route. In the end, officials awarded Atkins a cup trophy as well.
 
The final item in this attachment concerns baseball legend, Ty Cobb, who was a motor sports enthusiast. The article says he planned to make his "professional" debut as a driver in a Chalmers-Detroit "30." This car had apparently accumulated some acclaim, so much so that it was even given a nickname: Old Reliable. The car had been driven during the 1908 season for 100 successive days, covering 208 miles each day between Detroit and Pontiac. This was followed up by a "pathfinding tour" conducted by future Indianapolis 500 driver Billy Knipper between Denver and Mexico City. The car was also used as the pathfinder in the Munsey tour as well as a number of other events. Cobb's first event was planned to be a reliability run between New York and Atlanta, scheduled to start October 25. That trip was for 1,050 miles and was supposed to be one of several Cobb had contracted to do for Chalmers.