Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, July 1, 1915, Page 11

EDITORIAL +ES ELEVEN TO TWENTY THE OMAHA DAILY BEE | — —— 11, VOL. XLV-—NO. Omaha Speedway BIG SPEEDWAY AND IS TRACK FAST AS CHICAGO? NEW ROAD 70 AUTO | THE MAN WHO DIDIT To a Man of Whom You Have Little Heard Should Go a Great Deal of the Credit. HIS NAME I8 C. R. VAUGHN Somewhere in the crowds when the new Omaha auto speedway makes its debut on July 5, there will be a short, stocky, bronzed man peer- ing benignantly at the great speed- way and thanking his lucky stars that his work is done, The chances are he will have spent the night at the grounds, " Even if he foeen’t he will gurely be thers at sun- rise. Few will see him and probably If they do see him they will merely think him a part of the great throng which comes to see the race. But the little army of men who have been behind the scenes, who have watched the birth and growth of the great enterprise will know him and rec- ognize him as C. R. Vaughn, the man who took hold of the speedway. fifty days ago and made it a reality. You won't find Vaughn's name in the program. You haven't heard much about him in the newspapers. He has no ex- ecutive office and he hasn't anything to do with the races. But he comes mighty close to being the most important man in the entire crew. An Impossible Job. But Vaughn has been the works for the last fifty daye, On the fifteenth day ot May the Omaha speedway was still more or less of a dream. Only the first part of the track, that bullt by Jack Prince last fall, was up. Prince was gone and even though he were here it looked lltke an impossibility to add another thirty feet of width to that track, bulld the grandstand, put in the fences, garages, pits and a myriad of other things necessary. But one day the speedway directors mentioned the undertaking to Vaughn. “Know anything about speedways?’ Vaughn was asked. lever saw one,” was his reply, *“Well, we've got one that must be bullt in fifty days, can it be done?” asked the speedway director. “Sure, I'll attend to it,” said Vaughn. And attend to it he did. Despite his many woes and cares that speedway was bullt and is ready for the first race.' Rain Interferes. Vaughn had his troubles, many of them. First the rain interfered. The first day. Vaughn. started to work the rainy season started and there were at least fifteen days that not a hand was turned at the speedway. It was hard to against Vaughn, but the sturdy contrac- tor never whimpered, never made an ex- cuse, but simply promised all would be ready. And he made good on his prom- ise, the track is up, the grandstand is up and everything is ready for Starter Fred Wagner to give the starting signal. It was & big plece of work and a lot of credit is due to Vaughn and his crew of 200 men who made the July 6 classio a reality, NO BALL GAME CARDED FOR AFTERNOON OF JULY FIFTH To give the speedway a clear fleld in the afternoon Pa Rourke has decided to hold but one ball game July 5. Two are scheduled for that day, but Rourke has announced that only the morning game, starting at 10:80, will be played. The vace will start at 12:30. OMAHA, Wanta swap something for something else more useful to you? Use the Swappers' column of The Bee. 1915, SINGLE On Traing and st Motel Wews Stands, 8¢ ; COPY TWO CENTS. Experts Declare Better Average Depends Entirely on Strength of the Tires. MOTORS CAN GO STILL FASTER But conceding that Omaha's track with its triple radius and its highly pitched turns is faster, can a motor turn over faster and can tires stand the teat? Motor Engineers declare that engines can be tuned up to faster time. Granting |that, can the tires stand the constant |wear and tear? It is feared they cannot. Sometime, perhaps, improvements will be made in tires so that they can stand the intense speed without literally burning.up. But at the present & speed of 100 miles an hour is like putting a tire to a grind- stone and {t eoon wears down. At Chicago Resta started out at a pace of 105 miles an hour. The crowd behind tried to keep pace. The result was that the right rear tires, which stood the brunt of the attack on the pitched curves, blew up at twenty-five and thirty miles. Immediately the pace was out, not because the track couldn’t stand the speed or that the engines were unequal to it, but because the tires couldn't stand it. ‘That s the situation as it stands here. It is essentially a question of tires. If the tires can stand it without, the aver- age set by Resta at Chicago will be sur- passed when the cars whizz around the new board speedway in East Omaha on July 6. Wil the time made on the Omaha speedway surpass that made at Chicago last Saturday is a question that speed enthusiasts in Omaha are asking them- selves. It is a puzzling question, indeed, and many arguments pro and con are being advanced. Both of the speedways are bullt on a similar plan. The track surface of each speedway is broad. There isn't a doubt but what the board track is faster than the dirst or the macadam or the brick; it is certain that the time made here will beat that made at Indlanapolis, but will it beat Chicago? At Chicafo Dario Resta averaged 976 miles an hour. That is a world's record for the distance. The average at 300 miles awas ninety-eight miles an hour, also a record for the distance. So it is one safe bet, if the Chicago time is bested the driver who does it will certainly have to travel some. According to the engineers who de- signed and bullt the Omaha track, and according to Jack Prince, who first broached the idea of the wooden speed- way, the Omaha track can hold a speed of 120 miles an hour. This s surely faster than any time made at Chicago. RAILROAD SPREPARE TO HANDLE THE BIG CROWDS Raflroads have announced that a num- get the lumber out to the track because | ber of speckal trains will come to Omaha of the mud. BEverything seemed to break | on July & for the big auto race and the ‘wrestiing match. The Northwestern will run a speclal In from Oakdale and at night will run out two speclals, Oakdale and one to Long Pine. SPEEDWAY OPENED Motorists Will Not Have to Cross Tracks at Locust Street, but Can Take Another Route. SPECIAL CARS ARE TO RUN Take street cars on the Sherman avenus line golng north on Fourteenth street. Cars run direct from town to the speed- way every minute There are two automobile routes. From town go north on Sixteenth streot to Grace, east on Grace to Eleventh, north on Eleventh to Lake, east on Lake to Fifth and north on Fifth to the speed- way entrance. The other route is north from the city to Locust street, east on | Locust to Fifth and north on Fifth to the speedway entrance. Signs will mark the course along both of these roads. The directors of the Omaha Auto Spesd- way, for the accommodation of persons who wish to motor to the speedway on the day of the blg race, July 3, have opened & new road to the track yond s in good condition and permits autolsts to go to the track without cross- ing the raflroad tracks on Locust street. | The Lacust street road is also open and [the two routes will make it much easier for the motorists. The new route leads east on Grace street from Sherman avenue. The road |runs east on Grace to Eleventh streot, then north on Eleventh to Lake and east on lake to Fifth. Thence on Fifth di- rectly morth to the main entrance of the epeedway. Signs will be placed along the entire route so that motorists will have no trouble in locating the way. Street cars to the specdway will leave town every minute. The street car com- pany has promised to put every avallable car into service so that everybody will be afforded ample accommodations. Fred Gvod t(; Bé Head 0f Technical Board Fred Good, western manager for the Palge company, has been made chair- man of the technical committes which will serve at the 300-mile classio on the new Omaha auto spesdway July 8, Good is an old race driver. He spent seven years at the game, and what he doesn't know about a motor and racing cars {sn’t to be known. Thus one of the real, nice, hard jobs of the race was wished on to him. } Another car has entered the Omaha |race. H. G. Donaldson, who entered the | seventeenth car the first of the wepk, | wired to ¥. J. McShane, director of con- | tests, that he would enter a second ma- |ehine. The entry is on the way. This |is also a new car and said to be one that will clip off ninety miles an hour | without even snorting. / This | Omaha Auto Classic When They Get the Speed Fever They Tom Orr, member of the Maxwell rac- ing team which is entered in the Omaha July § race, is one of the most interest- ing figures in the game. Orr is the man who first placed an automobile in a circus saucer. You all know the circus saucer, seen at every camival and state and county fair. Beventy-five feet or so around and pitched to a bigh degree, the | motorcycles or automobiles race around | while spectators droop themselves over | the top wall, fearing that the rider will | be killed and at the same time hoplng that he may take & spill, Orr was the Tirst man to put an auto In one of theee tiny saucers. And thero he recetved his first spill. He landed in the hospital and was there a.oouple of months while they patched his spinal column, which wanted to detach itself from his body. Then somebody said Orr would never come back. To prove this & false assertion he came back, drove a ©ar in & race and returned to the hospital to have his spinal column repaired all over again. It had jerked loose from its moorings during the race. Later Orr became an experimental ex- | pert for Ray Harroun and is the tester of | the Maxwell racing cars. That he knows |how to test them is evidenced by the fact that he tuned the Maxwells p to such an increased speed after the in- | dianapolis race that Rickenbacher clip: | ped oft ninety-five miles am hour in bis. Gradually Orp returned to the game by | testlng machines. He asked Harroun for 'a mount and Harroun gave it to him. | | can't come back," Never Want to Quit | Orr doesm’t expect to stay in the racing game, it's just a little diversion for him. But to the wise Orr's case is like a good many others. While in most games “they in the racing game they can’t quit. It's the fever. Clip This Table and Keep Time on the Races at Speedway The following figures will be interesting to spectators who attend either the race or the speed trials previous to the race at the new speedway. The table shows st a glance the speed being made in miles per hour when the time the 'ap s turned in is announced. For Instance, | 11 ene of the drivers runs a lap in forty- | five_seconds flat & glance at the table will show that he traveled at the rate ot 100 miles per hour. A lap on the Omaha track Is a mile and a quarter anl this table is complled for a track of that length. Clip the table out and ses how fas* the drivers at the track are golng. Clock them yourself ‘and then look on your table. Miles, Seconds. Miles. Beconde. Per Hour. Per Lap. Per Hour, Per Lap 5. swe o 800 9 A8 16... .2 418 7. 58.6 4 k( 5.7 .9 | 79 5.0 6.4 | 80, 6.3 6.9 .. 6. 5. 5.9 8. b2 . 636 | 8. 52.8 198" 62.4 [ 5L.8 61.1 9. " . Invites the World on July 5th HOW THRY TIHE THE BIG AUTO CONTEST Instrument Which Costs $5,000 Will Be Used by Fred Wagner in Clocking July § Classic. I8 MOST INTRICATE MACHINE In the excitement of watching a big automobile race, where lives and fortunes are at stake every second from the drop of the starter's flag until the last car finishes, the public often marvels at the fact that the officials are able to furnish absolutely accurate and frequent detall records of the time, distances, ete. of each car. To the layman in the grandstand every- thing connected with a big race appears |like one vast volcanio eruption, a can- nonade of heavy artillery, with the spit- | ting forth of fire and smoke, gasoline tumes and burning rubber, through which the demon cars burst past the line of vislon (time after time until the flag falls at the crossing of the winner.) Then, who knows “how fast?’ Only the officlal starter, judges, timers and drivers themselves realize the im- portance of the little wire which a few of the spectators may have noticed stretched across the track at the starting and finishing point. As each car passes over this wire its performance is ‘“officially” recorded by means of one of the most delicately con- structed devices ever manufactured. 4 Only Twe Such Devices. There are only {wo of these devices in America. One is owned by the Indlanap- olis speedway and used to officlally time all the big races there, including the grand Memorial day annual event. The other is owned by the veteran “Starter” ¥rsd Wagner, whose fame is world wide. It is this race-timer bullt for and owned by Fred Wagner that is |used in timing the big California and | Florida events, the annua! Elgin road |r ete., and it is the officlal timi device of the American Automobile asso- clation (A. A. A, These timing devices cost over $5.000 each The entire outfit of the BStewart Warner electrie horograph, as this tim- ing apparatus ls called, consists of a wire stretched across the track and fastened at one end to an electric break-maker. Next, a time registering device run by a motor and battery; also, & Bliss chro- nometer, which is probably one of the most expensive clocks ever made, this part of the outfit alone costing §750. How It Operates. The operation of the device is as fol- lows: AS & car passes over this wire, which is elevated about an inch above the track, it depresses it. This action makes a ‘break” in the electrical cur- rent, and this break causes the timing device to operate. This timing device may be compared to a typewriter, with the exception that on a typewriter the key strikes against the paper and ribbon resting against the pud, while on this machine the operstion I8 just reversed. A long strip of paper is run®through the machine and passes un- der a marking ribbon. Raised above this is an arm or striking pad. The car in passing over the wire breaks the electric connection. This “break” causes the marking pad to strike the strip of paper resting over the raised numerals on the edges of the discs. Thus is im. printed on the paper the precise “time" shown by the exact position which the discs may be in at the instant. The ma- chine then automatically shifts the paper along ready to receive the next impres- sion, which will be caused by the mext car passing over the wire, As the first car makes the circuit of the track it automatically records the precise time that the lap is made in. A relay fitted within the devies pre- vents the back wheels of the car from registering, but this relay does not pre- vent the registration of two cars which might pass over the tape within §:300 ‘o8 & second of each other, Faots About the Big Auto Classio In Omaha July 5 | Start: 12:30. Brake tests and veverse "lfl!l- at 11 o'clock, Distance: 30 miles. Length of course: Mile and a quarter, Number of cars eligible: Seventesn. Prize money: $16,000. Division of purse: 3,600 to winner, §3,000, socond; $2,000, third; $1,000, fourth) $800, tifth; §700, sixth; §600, seventh, | Added prizes: §20 to car leading at 100 | miles and §250 to car leading at 300 mfles. Accommodations for spectators: Grand- stand seating 25,000, Parking space for |automobiles. Infield positions for general admission. | Admission to grounds: seats, §3 to §5: infield admission, 8 | Starter: Fred Wagner. | Reteree: Spike Kennedy, |