Thunder At Sunrise - Book Review

By Sigur Whitaker
 

In the beginning of international auto racing, there was the Gordon Bennett Cup. Established by American ex-pat James Gordon Bennett, Jr., millionaire owner of the New York Herald, in 1900 it revealed in stark terms how uncompetitive American automobiles were. The races were between national automobile clubs or nations and not individuals. Each team could send up to three cars and the drivers had to be a member of the entrant club. The first race was between Paris and Lyon, France. Of the five racers which started the race, the American entry, a Winton, finished dead last after a wheel failure. The race was won by a French racer.
 
America did not have a team entered in either the 1901 or the 1902 races. In 1903, the U.S. had three teams out of twelve teams. The two Wintons and the Peerless did not finish the race. In 1904, the U. S. did not send a team. In 1905, the United States had two teams, one by Locomobile and the other by Pope-Toledo. Just as in the previous races, neither car finished the race.
 
William K. (Willie K) Vanderbilt II wanted the American-built cars to be competitive. He organized the Vanderbilt Cup, a road race held on public roads on Long Island beginning in 1904. Beginning at sunrise, the race was well attended with the crowds crowding the roadway. An American, George Heath, finished first…in a French Panhard. In the 1905 Vanderbilt Cup, the top American finisher was Joe Tracy in a Locomobile in a distant third. Part of the reason for the lack of success by American manufacturers was that racing was expensive and they didn’t see the cost/benefit of spending the money to be competitive in racing. Most of the cars entered by American manufacturers were stripped down versions of the cars sold to consumers, not specialty-built machines. Interestingly, after the poor showing, eight American manufacturers began building specialty-built racers including Pope-Toledo, Thomas, Locomobile, Maxwell, Lee-Frayer, BLM and Apperson.
 
The 1907 race was canceled after a spectator at the 1906 event was killed despite the organizers ringing the course with six-foot high fencing topped by barbed wire and hiring people to control the crowds. By this time, the Vanderbilt Cup had become the most attended sporting event in the United States. The Vanderbilt Cup race returned in 1908 on the Long Island Motor Parkway built by a company which Vanderbilt formed which provided for better crowd control. This was the first race in which an American-built auto, a Locomobile piloted by George Robertson, won a major race against foreign competition.
 
In the absence of the 1907 Vanderbilt Cup, other towns decided to start their own street races, including Savannah, Georgia. The year was also significant as it was the year Brooklands, a specialty-built racecourse in England, was built. It would be the first time that races were held on a large, concrete closed course which had the advantage of being able to charge for seeing the race rather than just for a seat.
 
The Vanderbilt Cup returned in 1908 but it didn’t have the same draw as the previous races. The entire course had not been completed, and while a portion was run on the new Long Island Parkway, most of the race was on county roads, just as in the previous years.  Under the auspices of the AAA Contest Board and with pressure from the public, the Vanderbilt Cup changed its format from the traditional specialty-built racing machine to stock chassis. With Savannah wanting a race, the door opened for the rival Automobile Club America to regain some of the lost prestige.  The ACA jumped at the chance to sanction a significant race and chose to follow the Auto Club of France’s rules. The European teams chose to participate in Savannah’s Grand Prize rather than the Vanderbilt Cup because the race’s prize money was twice that of the Vanderbilt Cup and the two races had different standards for the cars. The 1909 Vanderbilt Cup was a stock chassis race for American built cars while the Grand Prize would have the specialty-built racers, primarily from Europe. It also meant that many of the American superstar drivers would not participate in the Vanderbilt Cup. Instead, the Vanderbilt Cup had a new breed of drivers who would become household names such as Johnny Aitken, Louis Chevrolet, and Joe Dawson.
 
As author John Burns says, the 1909 Vanderbilt Cup was a “dud.” At the end of the race, there were only two cars in contention, inept scoring resulted in a controversial winner, crowd control was abysmal, late October was too late in the season, and a later starting time than the traditional 6 a.m. wasn’t acceptable to many of the New York socialites who stayed away from the race. 1909 was also the year when the Indianapolis Motor Speedway opened.
 
The 1910 Vanderbilt Cup would be the last one run on Long Island despite race organizers returning the race to an early October date and the start of the race  to its traditional 6 a.m. start. Throughout the week preceding the race, rain fell on Long Island. The course, run primarily on dirt roads, soon developed deep ruts, which  made driving nearly impossible in the corners. As the race progressed, the track deteriorated, and spectators dashed onto the track to try to get a better view of the race.  The combination was disastrous. Two driving mechanics were killed and several spectators were seriously injured. Outrage grew and the running of the Grand Prize was in danger of being canceled as it was also on a road course. It returned to a shortened course in Savannah.
 
The first running of the Indianapolis 500 was in 1911. It was a good race…except like the 1909 Vanderbilt Cup, inept scoring led to controversy of who actually won the race.  The Vanderbilt Cup moved to Savannah and would be run on the same course several days before the Grand Prize. The 1911 Vanderbilt Cup was the first time that an American racer was superior in speed and endurance to the European cars in one of the big races. Mulford, piloting a Lozier, led the race from the fifth lap to the end. Mulford attributed his win to his team’s preparation, and practice including in the pit. Today, these are still attributes which define a winning performance in a race. Pit work, in particular, can make the difference between winning and losing.
 
The 1912 Indianapolis 500 is known for Ralph DePalma’s bad luck. DePalma seemingly had victory in hand with a six-lap lead over Joe Dawson with four laps to go. That was when his engine began to sour. With two laps remaining, the engine quit…and Joe Dawson in a National went on to win. Savannah decided that the expense of maintaining the course for the Vanderbilt Cup and the Grand Prize races didn’t make sense, and the two races moved to Milwaukee. The route selected was very narrow which would be a factor in the deaths of driver David Bruce-Brown and riding mechanic Tony Scudalari during practice the day before the race. Ralph DePalma was in the lead as the racers roared on the final lap. DePalma’s tire was shredding, and the question was whether it would hold or if it would blow. It held and DePalma won the race. One of the most interesting pictures in the book was of a shredded racing tire. At the spot of the blowout, it looks like spaghetti. On the final lap of the Grand Prize race, DePalma was catching up to leader Caleb Bragg when their cars touched. DePalma’s car left the road at approximately the same spot where Bruce-Brown and Scudalari had lost their lives and flipped. DePalma suffered life-threatening injuries including his abdomen being punctured by a cornstalk. Miraculously, despite the risk of serious infection, DePalma survived. Bragg went on to win the race.
 
The 1913 Indianapolis 500 saw the return of the French team…and Jules Goux dominated the race in a Peugeot. The race became one for second place between Americans Charlie Merz in a Stutz and Spencer Wishart in a Mercer. The Stutz had superior power while the Mercer had superior handling in the turns. As they passed the grandstand for the final lap of the race, the Stutz was on fire and Merz did not head to the pits. Rather, he soldiered on with flames coming from under the hood. Coming off the backstretch, his riding mechanic, Harry Martin, climbed out onto the hood of the car to unlock the straps securing the hood. Wishart finished in second place, twenty-six seconds before the Stutz. Scheduled to return to Savannah, the 1913 Vanderbilt Cup and Grand Prize races were cancelled after Savannah demanded what the organizers deemed to be unreasonable.
 
In 1914, Mercer made the decision to hire Barney Oldfield as part of their team which included Ralph DePalma. Management believed that having two marquee drivers on the team would ensure its dominance in the upcoming racing season. It had the opposite effect. There was an on-going feud between Oldfield and DePalma. DePalma was the team captain and after management told him to fire either Caleb Bragg or Spencer Wishert, DePalma quit. So did Wishart and Bragg. DePalma struggled to find a ride and finally arranged for a previous car to be brought out of storage. To be ready to race, the engine was replaced and a carburetor added. Oldfield assumed that the race was his and taunted DePalma. It was not to be. DePalma would win the Vanderbilt Cup using a bit of racing strategy. DePalma was running close to Oldfield when they passed the pits. DePalma signaled to his pit that he would be stopping on the next lap. Oldfield saw this and ducked into his pit…only to see DePalma drive by without stopping.
 
At the 1914 Indianapolis 500, the French took the top four spots. The top American finish was Barney Oldfield in a Stutz, more than twenty minutes off the pace. World War I  intervened and the foreign cars, which had dominated the 1914 race, did not return to the United States. For 1915, Vanderbilt Cup and Grand Prize moved to San Francisco as part of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition to celebrate the renewal of San Francisco after the devastation of the 1912 earthquake. The races were held on the exposition grounds—far from a good decision in terms of racing. The course was narrow and had six tight turns. Additionally, weather became an issue. Rain hit the area postponing the two races. When the Vanderbilt Cup was run, the track was muddy, slowing the speeds. On race day, the rain began and increased in intensity. It was won by Dario Resta with an average speed of 56.13 mph. He would also win the Grand Prize which was run several days later. The Indianapolis 500 appeared it would be a repeat of the 1912 race when Ralph DePalma’s racer quit just two laps from the finish. As the race ended, DePalma’s Mercedes developed engine problems on lap 197. Unlike the finish of the 1912 race, DePalma was able to nurse his racer to the checkered flag. An inspection revealed two holes in the crankcase from a broken connecting rod.
 
Racing in the United States would end after the running of the three signature events until the end of World War I. The Indianapolis 500 was reduced to 300 miles in length. A problem was a lack of participating autos. As a solution, the Speedway entered seven vehicles through two teams. Despite having one-third of the cars in the field, Dario Resta won the race piloting a Peugeot. The 1916 Grand Prize race would be the death knell for road racing in the United States. On lap eleven, Lewis Jackson, participating in only his second race as a driver, went into a turn at an estimated 110 mph. The car hit a curb, sheared off two trees before smashing into a tree. The crash ripped the engine and radiator from the car, and like the 1955 LeMans race, plowed into a crowd. The result was three spectators and Jackson killed and several injured. California, the only state remaining with road racing, banned it.
            This is a good book, chocked full of information about the early racing.