14 replies to this topic

[robert dick]

The Harkness Auto Handicap was a 100-miler held on June 1, 1918, distance 50 laps of the Sheepshead Bay speedway near New York.
Initially Tommy Milton in a Duesenberg was announced as the victor, two days later Ralph DePalma in a Packard (in 58 minutes 21 seconds).
The race is not mentioned in Phil Harms' list :
http://stratos.motor...year.asp?Y=1918

Does anybody have the entry list and results to hand?

[Boniver]

The race on 1 jun 1918 was not a race for the"AAA - Championship of 1918"


Sheepshead Bay speedway - New York - Coney Island Board ovaal

data - name race - Champ/not- 2miles x laps - win - care - team

9/okt 1915 - Astor 35 - Indy - 2 x175 - Anderson- Stutz- Stutz
6/nov 1915 - Harkness 100- Indy - 2 x50 - Resta- Peugeot -Resta

3/mei 1916 - Qualification 20 - vs - 2 x10 - Aitken - Peugeot
3/mei 1916 - Qualification 50 - vs - 2 x25 - Mulford - Peugeot - Speedway
13/mei 1916 - Metropolitan 150 - Indy -2 x75 - Rickenbacher - Maxwell - Maxwell
30/sep 1916 - Astor 250 -Indy - 2 x125 Aitken - Peugeot EX3 - Speedway
20/okt 1916 - Consolation 50 - vs -2 x 25 -Le Cain - Delage Harkness
28/okt 1916 - Harkness 100 -Indy - 2 x 50 -Aitken - Peugeot EX3

22/sep 1917 - Harkness 100 - Indy - 2 x 50 - Chevrolet L -Frontenac Frontenac

1/jun 1918 - Harkness 100 - vs - 2 x50 - De Palma - Packard Packard
17/aug 1918 - Qualification 20 - Indy -2 x10 -De Palma - Packard Packard
17/aug 1918 - Qualification 30 - Indy -2 x 15 -De Palma - Packard Packard
17/aug 1918 - Sheepshead Bay 50 - Indy -2 x25 -De Palma Packard Packard

14/jun 1919 - Qualification 10 - Indy -2x5 -Milton- Duesenberg Duesenberg
14/jun 1919 - Qualification 30 - Indy -2x 15 -Mulford -Frontenac - Mulford
14/jun 1919 - Sheepshead Bay 50 -Indy - 2 x 25 -De Palma Packard Packard
4/jul 1919 - Independance 100 - Indy -2 x50 -Chevrolet G -Frontenac Frontenac
14/jul 1919 - Qualification 10 II - vs -2 x5 xMulford -Frontenac Frontenac
20/sep 1919 - Sheepshead Bay 150 - Indy -2 x75 -Chevrolet G - Frontenac Frontenac

[Gerr]

Don't have an entry list or results, but there is some info in Catlin's, Sheepshead Bay story in AQ, vol. 14 no. 1, that helps with the "Who won? confusion.

"Still trying to pattern auto racing along horse racing lines, the Harkness was declared to be a handicap event. Louis Chevrolet and his Frontenac were given the scratch position and the remaining cars started according to their respective handicaps. Spectators and scorers alike were confused----and Tommy Milton was actually flagged the winner although DePalma had won on time. "

[humphries]

Robert

Harkness Trophy Race, Sheephead Bay 100 Miles,
(June 1, 1918 - postponed from Decoration Day, owing to mists)

1 Ralph DePalma (Packard)............58' 21 (Handicap 1'01)...102.8 mph
2 Tommy Milton (Duesenberg)........58' 31 (2'05)
3 Oldfield (Golden Submarine)........59' 20.2 (2'10)
4 Eddie Hearne (Frontenac)........1:00' 52 (2' 12)
5 Denny Hickey (Hudson)............1:01' 40.8 (3'10)
6 Omar Toft (Miller)......................1:03' 23 (2'35)
7 Louis Chevrolet (Frontenac).....1:03' 35 (Scratch)
8 I.P.Fetterman (Peerless)...........1:04' 40 (4'00)

Chevrolet had to make 3 pitstops, British driver Dario Resta retired after 54 miles when a piston punched a hole in the crankcase and set his new Resta Spl on fire. Resta was in third and looking good for a win. Another favourite Ralph Mulford (Frontenac) retired after 68 miles with a broken oil feed connection. Other retirements were Myers and Jack LeCain in Delages, Ira Vail in a Hudson, Joe Boyer (Frontenac) and McBride (Comet). Fifteen cars started.

Barney Oldfield's Miller-engined Submarine was no longer enclosed as the old showman found breathing difficult!

This gleaned from Motor Age and Motor World copies, thanks to Jim O'Keefe.

John

[WGD706]

On a historical note...Sheepshead Bay turned to the horses to attract the summer crowds. The Coney Island Jockey Club, Brooklyn's most magnificent racetrack, opened June 19, 1880 by a consortium of financiers headed by Leonard Jerome, the grandfather of Winston Churchill. A local road that led to the track was named for him, as the Bronx's much longer Jerome Avenue is. The suburban Handicap and Futurity rcaes were held there until they eventually wound up at Belmont by 1915. The track was also home to Brooklyn's first mechanized flight, as two dirigibles flew to Brighton Beach. By 1910, flight pioneer Glenn Curtis was flying biplanes from the track, and Calbraith Rogers took off on a transcontinetal flight that took 3 months, a world record at the time.

Betting on the horses was banned in Brooklyn in 1910. The Jockey Club limped on for awhile, but disbanded in 1916. But the track didn't die. In 1915 Harry Harkness, the son of Standard Oil Co. director Lamont Harkness opened the Sheepshead Bay Speedway for auto racing and air shows. Harkness, however, later got mixed up with mobster Arnold Rothstein (who had his mitts in a lot of pies, from Juniper Swamp development in Glendale, Queens to the 1919 Black Sox scandal), lost his millions and died broke, the Speedway closing in 1919. (Merlis, Rosenzweig and Miller, Brooklyn's Gold Coast).
The former speedway was purchased by another group of developers; this one laid out streets and built one-family homes, calling the area New Flatbush, a name that didn't stick.

[robert dick]

Many thanks!

= = = = = = = =

Some photos of the Harkness Auto Handicap/June 1, 1918 :

- Start with Milton's # 7 Duesenberg - and Resta's special in mid-row
http://memory.loc.go...6900/26958v.jpg

- During the race
http://memory.loc.go...6900/26959v.jpg

- Milton's # 7 Duesenberg
http://memory.loc.go...6900/26951v.jpg
and
http://memory.loc.go...6900/26952v.jpg
and
http://memory.loc.go...6900/26957v.jpg

- Resta at the wheel of his special
http://memory.loc.go...6900/26949v.jpg

- Oldfield had removed the complete cockpit/rear part of the body of his Submarine
http://memory.loc.go...6900/26947v.jpg

- Louis Chevrolet at the wheel of his Frontenac
http://memory.loc.go...6900/26953v.jpg

- DePalma at the wheel of # 4 Packard
http://memory.loc.go...6900/26954v.jpg
and
http://memory.loc.go...6900/26955v.jpg
and
http://memory.loc.go...6900/26956v.jpg

- Myers (Meyers? - Jim Meyer/Pugh-Duesenberg?)
http://memory.loc.go...6900/26950v.jpg

= = = = = = =

Resta's special has been discussed in
http://forums.autosp...t=resta special

[humphries]

Robert

I think the cars lined up in the first photo were probably taking part in one of the short supporting races as a photo from Motor Age has the cars lined up in twos and threes on the inside of the track, off the racing line. As lap times were somewhere in the region of 1' 05 - 1' 20" the limit men would have done a few laps before the scratchmen started.

John

[robert dick]

Originally posted by humphries
... the cars lined up in the first photo were probably taking part in one of the short supporting races...

I agree.

I think
# 7 = Milton/Duesenberg
# 8 = Hearne/Duesenberg (driver looks like Eddie Hearne)
# 1 = Resta/Resta Special
# 9 = Mulford/Frontenac
# 3 = Chevrolet/Frontenac

[fines]

http://memory.loc.go...6900/26951v.jpg

The great Jimmy Murphy is Tommy Milton's riding mechanic, which can be seen more clearly here:

http://memory.loc.go...6900/26952v.jpg

Also, this Duesenberg has the distinctive Roamer radiator shell. Duesenberg used to build "customer cars", mostly sponsored by car manufactureres which used Duesenberg proprietory engines, like Roamer, Meteor, ReVere etc. Usually, these customer cars had radiator shells like the passenger cars!

[HistoricMustang]

Originally posted by fines
http://memory.loc.go...6900/26951v.jpg

The great Jimmy Murphy is Tommy Milton's riding mechanic, which can be seen more clearly here:

http://memory.loc.go...6900/26952v.jpg

Also, this Duesenberg has the distinctive Roamer radiator shell. Duesenberg used to build "customer cars", mostly sponsored by car manufactureres which used Duesenberg proprietory engines, like Roamer, Meteor, ReVere etc. Usually, these customer cars had radiator shells like the passenger cars!

Michael, great information.

Do you get out very often?

Henry

[fines]

Get out? What's that?

[Buildy]

Can someone please tell me how to search and access this memory loc gov site????


I`ve seen the racing photos on the Library of Congress site,but never saw any of this stuff!

[robert dick]

Library of Congress:
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/mdbquery.html

[Buildy]

Thank you!


I found some great stuff there,But suspect there is more that I haven`t found on there yet....

[robert dick]

Another Sheepshead Bay event:

three "special match races" - 30-, 20- and 50-miler (in this order) at Sheepshead Bay - Saturday, 18 August 1917 - 40.000 spectators;
three starters:
- Ralph De Palma in V-12 Packard,
- Louis Chevrolet in ("chocolate colored") Frontenac,
- Barney Oldfield in Miller Golden Submarine (thirty- and twenty-miler) and 4,5-litre Delage (fifty-miler)
http://memory.loc.go...5100/25122v.jpg

De Palma won all three races,
the 30-miler in 16 min 35 sec 3/5,
the 20-miler in 10 min 53 sec 4/5,
the 50-miler in 27 min 32 sec 1/5.

De Palma, Packard
http://memory.loc.go...5100/25124v.jpg
http://memory.loc.go...5100/25125v.jpg

Chevrolet, Frontenac
http://memory.loc.go...5100/25123v.jpg

Oldfield, Golden Submarine
http://memory.loc.go...5100/25126v.jpg
http://memory.loc.go...5100/25127v.jpg
http://memory.loc.go...5100/25128v.jpg
The Golden Submarine was described in The New York Times as "the car that is made of armor plate and so inclosed that the driver will be uninjured if the machine turns turtle. It behaved badly in the amount of power which it gave yesterday, and the remark was soon under way in the first race that the submarine would be sunk."