Briarcliff Trophy 1908

Salut.

I found in this Forum (topic "Early American races", thanks Phil Harms ) the 1908 Biarcliff Trophy results, but this list is something different from which I already had (Source: "L'Historique de la Course Automobile", Edmond Cohin) . :

Harms List (Cohin divergences)

1.- Strang, 5.14.13
2.- Cedrino 5.21.05
3.- Vaughn 5.28.29
4.- Lytle 5.38.15
5.- Seymour 8 laps (for Cohin, Sartori, time agrees 5.53.45)
6.- Leland 8 laps (Seymour, and not 8 laps but only 7)
7.- Sartori 5.53.45 (Leland, only 7 laps)
8.- Poole 7 laps
9.- Harding, 7 laps
10.- Oldfield 7 laps (Mitchener, 7 laps)
11.- Hilliard, 7 laps (Oldfield, 7 laps)
12.- Bergdoll, 7 laps (Hilliard, 7 laps)
13.- Bloch, 7 laps
14.- Roberts, 7 laps (Bergdoll, 7 laps)
15.- Bernin, 7 laps (Roberts, 7 laps)
16.- Michener, 6 laps (Bernin, 7 laps)
17.- Robertson, 6 laps (Robertson too, but 7 laps)
18.- Watson, 5 laps



Finally, I have other two small problems about this race after reading 1908 Briarcliff-to-Yorktown Stock Car Race (thanks Frank S ) :

Who drived the Bianchi nº1, Prossen or Sartori?

De Palma drived the Allen-Kingstone nº 17 or he was only the Campbell mechanic?


Somebody can help me to determine surely the correct data?

Thanks

Nino

"The Automobile" published the full official results and they are as reproduced by Edmond Cohin down to 9th. Poor crowd control meant the race was shortened from 10 to 8 laps but the course was still invaded whilst some drivers were racing. Paul Sartori managed a quicker last lap than Seymour (held up at a train-crossing for five minutes) and Leland ( two punctures and he needed to refuel using beer bottles to transfer petrol from a spectatator's car to his own). However, the officials went back on a decision to time the first eight finishers, such was the chaos at the finishing line, and they actually only timed five finishers. The official results were blatantly unfair. Respected journalists clocked Seymour and Leland and calculations show that both should have been placed ahead of Sartori but they had no official recorded times for 8 laps! Possibly, later, there was an objection and the official results were altered. I'd be interested to know.

All the finishers down to 12th probably completed 8 laps, the Seventh Lap times given simply represent the last official timings. As the drivers had problems even starting at their allotted times, officials being engaged in hand-to hand fighting with some spectators, the results are all a little "iffy". Also there was 2.8 mile stretch of the circuit that was "controlled" and the cars were not timed but allowed ten minutes to negotiate this stretch, escorted by police on motor-cycles. Cards were placed in a box on the car noting the times of arrival at, and departure from, this controlled section! The circuit was VERY approximately 30 miles long with the deduction of the controlled section.

Barney Oldfield and Hilliard were 10th and 11th as Phil Harms records, but according to "The Automobile" 12th was Bloch, 13th Roberts, 14th Maurice Bernin, 15th Bergdoll and Michener 16th and Robertson 17th, these last two only having official times for 6 laps but completed seven.

DePalma was the driver of the Allen-Kingston not Campbell. According to the AAA notes compiled by Catlin this was DePalma's first race.

What with those in the grandstand having their view blocked by an unruly mob, Pinkerton agents raiding gambling dens armed with axes, a carpenter repairing a crumbling wooden bridge with new beams owing to the pounding of the racing cars and Barney Oldfield (so he claimed) being clipped by a train's "cow-catcher" at a level crossing, the meeting could be described as eventful. They don't have races like that any more.

As for the cars there was much mumbling that some were anything but "stock" or for that matter "stock-chassis".


John

the great fam! (the race, not your tex, of course )

A great aid, Thank you very much John.

In George Eastman House web are excellents photos of this race:

1908 Briarcliff Trophy photos

April 15, 1908:
"The drawings for positions by the entrants in the Briarcliff race April 24, took place at the office of the Manufacturers' Committee in the Bryant Arcade yesterday afternoon. Prossen wins first position and will lead the way with the Bianchi car."

Unclear if/why Sartori replaced Prossen.

= = = = = = = =

In the fall of 1907 DePalma accepted a proposition as an assembler in the Allen-Kingston plant. In the Briarcliff race he was to serve as mechanic for Campbell.

April 23, 1908:
"Arthur Campbell in the Allen Kingston racing car which was entered in the stock car race at Briarcliff tomorrow duplicated exactly the accident to James B. Ryall in his Matheson car yesterday morning, and turned turtle off an embanked bridge on the Briarcliff circuit into a stream on the eastern side of the course."

Campbell sustained a broken leg. DePalma was chosen as Campbell's substitute.

While doing research into our microfilm files (at the small upstate New York newspaper were I toil) for a column I put together, an "In Years Past" for happenings of 100, 50, 25 years ago, I came across a front page story on the Briarcliff race which was run 100 years ago today.

Couldn't believe an auto race rated a front page, above-the-fold story as it is a rare day when anything other than NASCAR is mentioned even in the sports pages these days!

Thought I would print some of the excerpts from the story as it appeared in The Evening Journal (as the paper was then known.)

Briarcliff - April 24 - Twenty-two automobiles of the finest American and foreign types started at dawn today in a 250 mile race for supremacy over one of the most hazardous courses ever chosen for a modern speed contest. For just a little over 32 miles the course winds through picturesque country in northern Westchester County. Almost every turn of the course is a danger spot and there were many predictions of serious accidents before the race was run. The danger of the course and the possibility of serious mishap have added tremendously to the interest, usual in contests of this kind and long before the hour sceduled for the start the course was lined with automobiles filled with spectators. At 8 o'clock this morning it was estimated that 11,000 {can that figure be right?} automobiles were parked along the course.


The veteran Barney Oldfield, who braved the fate associated with 13 by driving a car bearing that number, was given a rousing cheer when he stood at the starting line awaiting the signal. He accepted the greeting with confidence and sent back a grateful look to the shouting thousands as he sped across the line.

LinC

Just a few more bits about the race:

At the second turn from Pine Bridge, and about a mile from that place, there is a hilly spot in the road and the cars had to be sent at top speed to surmount it. There is a rise of about 10 feet and the cars struck the top at such speed that they shot into the air and came down on the ground again with a thud.

The finish of the fourth round furnished one of the prettiest sprints of the race up to that point. As the cars swung around the sharp curve above the judges stand, Barney Oldfield in 13 and Hilliard in 16 were fighting it out side by side. They came down the narrow course at frightful speed, the sides of their cars seperated only by inches. Almost in front of the judges stand. Oldfield forged to the front and in an instant flashed away well ahead of Hilliard.

Watson in car 22 was the first man to come to grief. His machine collided with a post at East View and was so badly disabled that it was three hours after the start before he had made repairs and finished the first round.



Linc