VANDERBILT CUP

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 247, 19 October 1936, Page 2

VANDERBILT CUP

RICH MOTOR RACE 60,000 DOLLAR PRIZE. NEW YORK, Oct. 15. The Italian Tazio Nuvolari, driving an Alfa Romeo, won the 300 miles George Vanderbilt Cup race, the prize for which is 60,000 dollars. Nuvolari's time was 4 hours 32 minutes 44.04 seconds, the average speed being 66.99 miles an hour. The Frenchman Wimille was second, taking twelve seconds more than Nuvolari. Brevio (Italy) was third and Sommer (France) fourth. Pat Fairfield (England) won fifth place. McEvoy (Australia) was originally placed fifth but is now placed sixth. The scorers explained the error was because of the rush in a record finish. The race inaugurated the million dollar Roosevelt Race and was over a twisting four-mile road course, the first in America, and is considered the most severe test of man and car in the world. The new four-mile serpentine dirt track on which the race was run is on the old Roosevelt Field in Long Island, New York City. The track contains twenty turns—reverse turns, hairpins, double twists, and others but is all on the flat, and therefore under engineering control at every turn. It is protected on each side, for the full length of the course, by steel i rails. Beyond the rails and between the track and the spectators is a safety zone of 30 feet. At the edge of this zone is a heavy steel wire fence. At various points there are signal lights, green for clear riding, yellow to warn cars to slow down because of a serious accident, and red Ito stop all cars. The first two classes of lights can be controlled by any of | the five field judges at different points I and the red lights are controlled by ! the chief judge. Additional protection is provided by concrete walls at the most important turns. Since on the straightway it is expected that drivers will make up to 150 miles an hour, a chute has been provided at | the turns so that if a driver overrides ia turn he will travel harmlessly down ■the chute and out of the way of the ■ cars behind him. The track has a I treated dirt surface, and the width | varies from 60 feet to 100 feet, while I the straightway is 80 feet wide except ;at the pits, where the width is 100 | feet. There is a 150 ft. width for the I turn at the end of the straightway— I the hardest of all.