The Glenda Stewart Derby Miller is in the USA now, photos were on a HAMB thread or link to a collection. There are photos on the Miller website as well.
This photo is captioned, Charles Rolls on a Wolseley that he drove in the Eliminating Trials for the 1905 Gordon Bennett Race. Did he actually run this unusual car in the race?
This photo has the following caption;1935 Four midget race cars race against each other during the practice at the track at Lea Bridge. I have no idea if it is correct or not and hope our friends in the UK can help. The #6 and the #7 both look like they are powered by vee twin motorcycle engines, the other two engines appear different. Was this strictly a motorcycle track or did cars other than these midgets run there? They are cute little buggers.
T-H Taken from two different sources (no pictures as yet) 1905 The last of the six Gordon-Bennett Cup Races took place in France on a 137 km mountainous circuit in the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com</st1:State>Auvergne</ST1lace. This race must have been the most important event up to that time, when looking at the strong entry of three cars from each of the seven participating nations. The following cars were entered: <st1:country-region w:st="on">America</st1:country-region>: 2 Pope-Toledos 1 Locomobile <st1:country-region w:st="on">Austria</st1:country-region>: . 3 Mercedes <st1:country-region w:st="on"><ST1Belgium</st1:country-region>: .. 3 Pipe <st1:country-region w:st="on"><ST1France</st1:country-region>: .. 1 de Dietrich ....... 2 Brasiers Germany: . 3 Mercedes England: 1 Napier ....... 2 Wolseleys Italy: .... 3 FIAT After 548 km and 7h02m42.6s at an average speed of 77.78 km/h, the Frenchman Léon Théry on a 96 hp Brasier won for the second year in a row. He was over ¼ hour ahead of the feared second placed Nazzaro on a 110 hp FIAT. The trophy stayed in <st1:country-region w:st="on">France.</st1:country-region> <O</O <O</O The team chosen to represent <st1:country-region w:st="on">England</st1:country-region> in the 1905 Gordon Bennett race were Earp on a Napier, Rolls and Bianchi on Wolseleys, and Cecil Edge and John Hargreaves on Napiers. In the race Theray again won for F<st1:country-region w:st="on">rance</st1:country-region> on his Richard Brasier. Rolls proved to be best of the British team bringing his Wolseley into 8th place with Earp next and Bianchi 11th. This would prove to be the last Gordon Bennett race for cars, the following year it would be for balloons and from 1909 for aeroplanes . .
This is may not be a race car but since it left the scene of the big ones in San Francisco in 1915 on its way to NY I thought you might be interested. We are back in Salt Lake City again and I guess their sponsors for the trip were the Exposition and a tire company. The tires look to be a filler of some sort with possibly a hard rubber tread on a detachable rim.
Lea Bridge was primarily a motorcycle speedway. This was one of several attempts to introduce midget racing to Britain in the 1920s, 30s and 40s, but it never really caught the public's imagination. The cars in your picture look to be Reville midgets: this page also gives some information on the Skirrows, which were the most successful design of the era - http://www.bsafwdc.co.uk/page21.php There's also this thread at TNF, which, although initially concerned with the 1948 series, has information on the 1930s (and earlier) races and links to other threads on the subject. http://forums.autosport.com/index.php?showtopic=124703 Spike Rhiando was often involved ...
Pictures Captioned as:- The Hon. C.S. Rolls - Wolseley 1905 Gordon Bennett Cup The Hon. C.S. Rolls - Wolseley 1905 Gordon Bennett Cup Cecil Bianchi - Wolseley 1905 Gordon Bennett Cup
The Lea Bridge track in London's East End staged regular midget car meetings in 1937 and at the start of 1938, then switched its operations to Crystal Palace (another London track) but soon closed. In the later 1930s the most popular midgets were Skirrows and Eltos. Some details of British midget car racing history and photos can be found on http://midgetcarpanorama.proboards.com
The racing at Lea Bridge in 1937 was on a team format, part of a league competition. Each race was between four drivers, two from each club, with points 3 for a win, two for second, one for third, 0 for fourth. The top drivers in the league were Walter Mackereth, Charie Pashley and Spike Rhiando. The photo is from Lea Bridge in early 1937 - with a good size crowd in attendance.
Photo of the Jimmy and Jimmy, Jr. on a poster for the Virginia State Fair, Labor Day weekend 1924. The Jimmy Jr. appears to be wearing the later body.
A very early photo of some low speed racing action. April 5, 1902 Five mile event at the Grosse Point, Detroit. Riemer's Loco steamer wins at 10:51. A little less than 30 MPH!
I have always enjoyed photos of the Green Dragon but very few are lettered as this one is. This is Oldfield in a photo dated August 12, 1904 at an exhibition race on the Kenilworth track in Buffalo NY, although based on the jacket and the trees I doubt the date is correct. His speed for the five miles that day was 58.0 MPH. At this time in his career he was earning in the neighbor of Three thousand dollars for an afternoon of showmanship.
It's raining today, I'm home and worried that a film crew from "Hoarders" may show up, so I'm organizing things. Found some carpet, and this clipping from a 1900 issue of Harpers Weekly. Alexander Winton held the long distance record for a run from Cleveland to New York in 47 hours 34 minutes. On April 16 the first ACA Road Race on Long Island Springfield to Babylon was won by A.S. Riker in 2 hours 3 1/2 minutes in a Riker electric. He beat W.A. Tangerman on a gasoline tricycle. The Winton in the photo was to compete in the Bennett Cup race in France. Did it arrive, if so were did he place?
The missing link, good find. Here's a story on the Jimmys cleaning up at Brunot's Island 1912 A mislabeled LOC picture of them lined up at Laurel with Burman June 28-29th 1912 and a clipping. I note both these meets were 2 day affairs. I read something about Barney getting $4000 for an appearance a bit later. Burman seems to have been quite the showman too, reported to have entered some 80 races in 1912 with the Blitzen and Jumbo Benzs, the Cutting and OhiO 999 in his quiver. I don't think I've seen a decent picture of the OhiO they built especially for him.
There were two Winton cars entered for the 1900 Gordon Bennett Trial. Alexander Winton started but was soon out after breaking a wheel while the second car to be driven by A.L.Riker was not ready in time and did not start at all. Whether it arrived in France is a good question. Now, how about a picture of the carpet you found.
I think that should be Andrew L Riker of Riker Electric: http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/collection/object_1289.html The original US team for the 1900 GBT was supposed to be Winton, Riker and a third unnamed contestant, each of them to provide their own car. Only the Winton actually materialised.
Here's a bit more info, the ad is from January 1910 The Kline Kar was an American [automobile] built first in [York, Pennsylvania] (1910-1912), and then in [Richmond, Virginia] (1912-1923). Sometimes the car was just referred to as a Kline. James A. Kline moved to York to work on a car that at the time was known as the [York] , but would soon become the [Pullman] . After leaving that company, he partnered with another former employee, Samuel E. Baily, and also with Joseph C. Carrell to form B.C.K. Motor Company. This new firm produced the Kline Kar starting in 1910, in the building owned by Baily for his carriage company. Almost right away, the 6-cylinder cars were entered in auto races. There were two dirt track race cars called "Jimmy" and "Jimmy, Jr." after the chief designer and his son. These race cars brought the company nationwide attention. They also drew the interest of a group of Richmond, Virginia businessmen. They noted how well the Kline was selling in their state and eventually bought the company and moved it to Virginia. In Richmond, they reorganized as the Kline Motor Car Corporation and built a new factory in which to produce the car. Starting in November 1912, Klines were produced in Richmond, except for the engines brought in from [Bath, New York] , where the Kirkham Machine Company built them. This outsourcing was most likely to enable the new firm to enter mass manufacture quickly.Kimes, p.819. http://www.crosslink.net/~gewhite/micro.htm James A. Kline Papers - 1 roll 16mm microfilm Approximately 2,000 pages of documents from the papers of James A. "Jimmy"Kline of Richmond, VA provided through the courtesy of Tim Crowder. Kline'sfamily built the Kline Kar passenger car, 1910-1922, first in York, PAthen in Richmond, VA. Kline Kars ran in important American races, 1911-1931.Kline himself managed the annual Labor Day races at the Richmond, VA ½-milefairgrounds track, 1927-1941. Many entry forms, photos, correspondencewith drivers, AAA, some IMCA results. Also with these papers are the minutesof the 1951 AAA Contest Board annual meeting.
Other York built cars were Broomell,Hardinge Mesisenhelder,Mount Wolf,Riess Royal, and York. There was a Mesisenhelder in the Hershey flea market 3-4 years ago, huge car.
A wonderful photo of what appears to be one of the two Pope-Harford team cars that were built for the 1910 Vanderbilt Cup races has surfaced. According to The Motor World of September 29, 1910 these cars used what they called the new 4.750"x 5.500" 50HP Four. The two drivers were Jack Flemming who finished sixth and Bert Dingley who finished tenth. Dingley was reported to have taken his car west and it maybe the car that he finished second to Tetzlaff in his Lozier at Santa Monica in both races. Lou Disbrow also drove one of these cars in races as the second photo shows him in one of the cars. My question is, can anyone positively identify the track with this type of grandstand as in the photo. With this information we can maybe know more. My guess is that it has just been driven to the track as it has a spare on the back, unless this was a road race. But the grandstand looks a little too finished for it to be a road race. It also has not be numbered yet so I would think it was before a race. The car is also dark and Disbrows car looks to be white? So that may also be a clue.
T-Head, That grandstand reminds me of the backside of the early Stands at Indy. I have a photo in the book Indy: Racing Before the 500 that shows that Grandstand B with the dirt surface as in your photo.
The Jalopy Journal
