May 1910 National Champions at IMS

The attachments below contain articles from the May 30, 1910 Indianapolis Sun that report on the final day of racing for the May 1910 race meet at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This was the day of the much-anticipated "national championships," a newly-announced distinction by the American Automobile Association (AAA) for select race meets. Car manufacturers were keen to make a great showing. Check out other articles that provide additional summaries on the results of the races staged May 27 and May 28 elsewhere on First Super Speedway.
 
The first article, IMSreportSun053010, attached below opens with a callout box referencing the historic wreck of the Marmon Wasp with driver Ray Harroun. Here's the text: "Ray Harroun escaped death or injury by a miracle when his speedy Wasp, the car with which he won the 200-mile race of Saturday, mounted the wall on the end turn and traveled astride it for about 111 feet. The tire blew up. The machine swerved and struck the wall, tearing a hole in it, and mounting the wall for a slide. The car was wrecked."
 
Following that bulletin came a schedule for the day, which did not start until 1 pm. Note that the schedule of contests is the focus of the second article below. The two articles corroborate one another in terms of the event descriptions. The second article, IMSschedule053010, adds value by noting the entries for each event. Note that most of the races have less than ten entries. The largest is Event 12, the free-for-all handicap with 22 entries. Curiously the Remy Grand Brassard - what I would think would be the feature of the day - lists but seven competitors. The entries that appear below is information I obtained through the second attached article.
 
Event No. 1 - Stock chassis cars, Class B, Division 1 - 100 cubic inches piston displacement and under, minimum weight 1,100. Distance: five miles. Entries: Newell Motsinger (Empire); J. F. Gelnaw and Eddie Hearne (Hupmobile); Roberts (Herreschoff).
Event No. 2 - cancelled. Original entries: Lee Frayer (Firestone-Columbus); Edmunds and Bill Endicott (Cole); Fuller (Schwitzer); Bert Miller (Warren-Detroit); Bob Burman and Louis Chevrolet (Buick); Cunningham and Skeggs (EMF). 
Event No. 3 - Stock chassis cars, Class B, Division 3 - 231 to 300 cubic inches piston displacement. Minimum weight, 1,700 pounds. Distance: five miles. Tinkler and Gil Andersen (Marion); Ray Harroun and Joe Dawson (Marmon); George Clarke and Bisbe (Cutting).
Event No. 4 - Stock chassis cars, Class B, Division 3 - 231 to 300 cubic inches piston displacement. Minimum weight, 1,700 pounds. Distance: ten miles. Frank Fox (Pope-Hartford); Tinkler and Gil Andersen (Marion); Ray Harroun and Joe Dawson (Marmon); George Clarke and Bisbe (Cutting).
Event No. 5 - Stock chassis cars, Class B, Division 4 - 301 to 450 cubic inches piston displacement. Minimum weight 2,000 pounds. Distance: five miles. Johnny Aitken and Charlie Merz (National); Bill Endicott (Westcott); Leigh Lynch and Louis Switzer (Jackson); Ray Harroun and Joe Dawson (Marmon); George Clarke and Bisbe (Cutting).
Event No. 6 - Stock chassis cars, Class B, Division 4 - 301 to 450 cubic inches piston displacement. Minimum weight, 2,000 pounds. Distance: ten miles. The entries in this event were the same as those in Event 5.
Event No. 7 - Stock chassis cars, Class B, Division 5 - 451 to 600 cubic inches piston displacement. Minimum weight, 2,000 pounds. Distance: five miles. Entries: Tom Kincaid and Charlie Merz (National); Stoddard-Dayton (Reedy?)
Event No. 8 - Stock chassis cars, Class B, Division 5 - 451 to 600 cubic inches piston displacement. Minimum weight, 2,000 pounds. Distance: ten miles. Entries for this contest were the same as Event 7.
Note: Event No. 9 was cancelled.
Event No. 10 - Cars, Class D, free-for-all, open race. Open to all cars entered at this meet. Distance: five miles. Entries:Tom Kincaid and Johnny Aitken (National); Bob Burman and Louis Chevrolet (Buick); Ben Kirscher (Darracq).
Event No. 11 - Cars, Class D, free-for-all, open race. Open to all cars entered at this meet. Distance: five miles. Entries the same as Event 10.
Event No. 12 - Cars, Class D, free-for-all, handicap race. Open to all cars entered at this meet. Distance: five miles. Entries: Newell Motsinger (Empire); Lee Frayer (Firestone-Columbus); Edmunds and Bill Endicott (Cole); Tom Kincaid, Charlie Merz and Johnny Aitken (National); Jap Clemens (Westcott); Leigh Lynch, Ellis and Louis Switzer (Jackson); Bert Miller (Warren-Detroit); Bob Burman and Louis Chevrolet (Buick); Cunningham and Skeggs (EMF); Fuller (Schwitzer); Bert Miller (Warren-Detroit); Ben Kirscher (Darracq); Tinkler and Gil Andersen (Marion); Cunningham and Skeggs (EMF); Art Greiner and Tousey (private Nationals); Gil Andersen and Tinker (Marion); Gelnaw (Hupmobile); Roberts (Herreschoff).
Event No. 13 - Remy Grand Brassard & Grand Trophy 50-miles. Stock chassis, 231 to 300 cubic inches, minimum weight, 1,700. Entries: Frank Fox (Pope-Hartford); Jackson (Scheifier); Tom Kincaid (Great Western); Gil Andersen and Tinkler (Marion); Bert Miller (Warren-Detroit); Ray Harroun (Marmon).
Event No. 14 - Stock cars, Class E, for the John A. Wilson Trophy (valued at $150). John A. Wilson of Franklin, Pennsylvania donated the trophy to recognize the stock touring car that first covered a full mile in one minute or less under regular touring conditions and carrying four passengers. Entries: Frank Fox (Pope-Hartford); Faulkner (National); Updike (Knox).  
 
After listing the schedule the article (IMSreportSun053010) begins a report with an estimate of attendance on the final day of racing - 50,000 people described as packing "the grandstand, bleachers and other accommodations to their limit." Another testimony to the impressive gathering of spectators is described this way, "On the inside of the paddock private motorcars containing tourist from all over Indiana and cities adjacent to the state lined the tack for a half-mile north of the repair pits."
 
Preparations for the Monday races is described. The track was washed with gasoline to remove oil and grease of the previous races. Windy conditions from the northwest that reportedly "beat in the faces of the contestants up the long straightaway stretch of the back...". Nonetheless, insiders predicted new speed records.
 
There were ten national championship events, five for ten miles the other half for five miles. The final event of the day for the $1,000 G&J Trophy for Class B stock cars. The Buick stock car controversy lingered and officials barred star drivers and crowd favorites Bob Burman and Louis Chevrolet from competing in all but the free-for-all events.
 
As aside, the article notes that two men fainted in the paddock crowd - at about the same time and within 15 feet of each other. Apparently the crowd was thick enough it was struggle to move people away in an effort to get fresh air. My guess is one of them was John Newby, Speedway Co-Founder Art Newby's father. See the third attached article. It is a very brief item discussing that John Newby fainted at the event. Despite the comment that he was expected to recover, he did not. He passed away on June 7, 1910.
 
In a too common discrepancy I have seen in reports of the day, the first contest is described as a "free-for-all ten-mile race." This does not corroborate the above schedule which represents that the first race was a five-miler for Class B machines.
 
The entries for the first event were reportedly Johnny Aitken and Tom Kincaid (National), Caleb Bragg (Fiat), Ben Kirscher (Darracq) and Art Greiner (private National). As a five-mile contest the race was only four laps long. Bragg led the first two laps with Kirscher taking the lead at the start of lap three. He did not finish the lap, losing a tire in turn four to skid to the infield and out of the race. Bragg surged to the front again and stormed to the win. Kincaid and Greiner followed in that order.
 
The second event had one entry, that of the Knox with Barney Oldfield. He failed to meet the requirement to achieve a mile-a-minute pace for a stock car carrying four passengers. Strangely, and confusingly, the report indicates that event number two was canceled to allow Referee Art Pardington more travel time on a trip to Detroit. Apparently, this event was re-scheduled from one of the previous days. Nevertheless, this reporting is confusing and imposes much on the reader.
 
The IMSreportSun053010 article then reports that Marmon driver Joe Dawson bested his teammate in "the prettiest race of the day," with a half car length distance between the top two finishers. Dawson's winning time of four minutes, 41.35 seconds was a new world's closed circuit record for the distance. The previous record was held by Lewis Strang in a Buick at 4:48.
 
Barney Oldfield is then reported to have tried to set a world speed time trial record with his Blitzen Benz, but the electric timers malfunctioned. The article reports on a much discussed point in the weeks leading up to the race weekend - that Oldfield successfully negotiated for appearance money. Some estimates had the request at $5,000 but this article suggests that the finally agreed-upon amount was something short of that.
 
In Event 6 for 10 miles, Class B stock chassis cars of 231 to 300 cubic inches prizes of $150, $25 and $10 were offered. Note that this is not perfectly in sync with scheduled listed above which called for 301 to 450 cubic inches piston displacement. The entries were Frank Fox (Pope-Hartford), Gil Anderson (Marion), Harroun and Dawson (Marmon) and George Clarke and Bisbe (Cutting). Curiously, the results are not reported. I believe The Sun, like its rival The News was an evening paper and had to go to press mid-day before the races were completed. Still, though, no explanation is provided.
 
The next race reported was Event 8. It was apparently a free-for-all as the entries included two Buicks for Chevrolet and Burman. Lee Frayer was entered in a Firestone-Columbus with Miller in a Warren-Detroit. The Buicks dominated with Chevrolet the winner and Burman runner-up.
 
A final note in the first article is that the Remy Grand Brassard race would be conducted three times at the Speedway during the summer racing season.
 
The second article attached below, IMSschedule053010, is less about narrative than a straightforward listing of the races and the entries. It's best value is that it names the drivers and cars who planned to race in the various contests as of race morning. I have integrated it's information with the list of events provided in the first article and recounted in this post above.
 
The description of the John A. Wilson Trophy event is provided in the IMSschedule053010  is useful and for legibility and your convenience I repeat it here:
 
"Event No. 14 - Stock cars, Class E; for the John A. Wilson trophy, valued at $150; donated by John A. Wilson of Franklin, Pa., to be awarded to the stock touring car that first makes a full mile in one minute or less under regular touring conditions and carrying four passengers; the contest to be confined to cars of not more than 50 horsepower, A.L.A.M. rating, regular tourning bodies (not baby tonneau or torpedo bodies), tanks full, top on but may be down, mud guards on and regular supply of tools, passengers to weigh not less than 100 pounds each and to sit upright in the car, to insure there is no down grade, the mile to be made both ways of the track, if more than one entry in the contest then the car making the fastest time to be awarded the cup, providing said faster time equals a mile a minute."
 
Interesting to note if you reference the entries to Event No. 14 is that none of the three drivers listed ended up competing, at least accounding to other reports. There was a Knox entered but Barney Oldfield was reported at the wheel - and failed to meet the stipulated mile-a-minute time. I can only guess Oldfield was asked to drive by the Knox entrants due to his impressive reputation for pace-setting.