Mystery Friday Foto #41 Solved: The M-35 Allen-Kingston, winner of the 1908 Meadow Brook Sweepstakes
Did you identify this weekend's Mystery Foto?
Answers to the Mystery Foto questions:
Identify
- The racer, the driver and the race
M-35 Allen Kingston driven by Hughie Hughes. and winner of the 1908 Meadow Sweepstakes which ran as part of the Motor Parkway Sweepstakes.
- The location of the pits
On the Long Island Motor Parkway in the Hempstead Plains in front of the grandstands. See the below Frank Femenias' wonderful mappings.
Comments (6)
Congrats to Greg O., David Miller, Frank Femenias, Art Kleiner and Steve Lucas for identifying the M-35 Allen Kingston.
Kudos to Frank Femenias and Art Kleiner for their below mappings of the pit locations.
Enjoy,
Howard Kroplick
Comments
#M35 Allen-Kingston in the 1908 Meadow Brook Sweepstakes driven by Hughie Hughes. Finished 1st, averaging 52.6 MPH. The pits located at the start/finish line.
Seen below in the 1909 Readville Races and an A-K in touring form.
The racer is an Allen-Kingston and the driver is Hughie Hughes. The race is the 1908 Meadowbrook sweepstakes. The pits are located in the Hempstead Plains, today’s Levittown. West of Crocus lane, between Blacksmith and Orchid roads. The absence of the Officials/Timekeeper’s stand or scoreboard in the photograph means that the photographer is standing at the west end of the pits or they weren’t built yet.
M35 Allen-Kingston racer driven by Hughie Hughes. Finished 1st, averaging 52.6 MPH during the 1908 Meadow Brook Sweepstakes on Oct 10 1908. The photographer is standing on the ground, just north of the Levittown grandstand seating, facing NW in 1908.
I’d bet photographer was standing by the west crew pits (there were two crew pits, east and west of the Official’s Stand ), looking northwesterly and just west of the Official’s Stand and Press Box. Photos below
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Racer: Allen-Kingston driven by Hughie Hughes in the 1908 Meadow Brook Sweepstakes in advance of the Vanderbilt Cup Race. Finished 1st averaging 52.6 mph.
The location of the pits were in front of the grandstands, opposite the press box.
Photo of Hughes from Nov., 1911 as found in Wikipedia. And the location of the pits as documented in vanderbiltcupraces.com
That’s the M-35 Allen-Kingston Racer, driven by Hughie Hughes, in the 1908 Meadowbrook Sweepstakes. Hughes went on to win the event. The pits were on the LIMP in the Hempstead Plains, today’s Levittown. This photo was probably taken at the western end of the pits since there’s no officials stand in view across the road, maybe in the vicinity of today’s Orchid Road and Skimmer Lane.
Looks like the photographer is standing somewhere in today’s Cul-de-Sac!
I’d bet the photographer was standing in between the Grandstand and the west Crew Pit, focusing NW while omitting the Official’s Stand. This is not confirmed. Photo below.
I often wonder if any of the new residents living on the newly-built cul-de-sac know the historic significance of their neighborhood? The Grandstand, Official’s stand, and Crew Pits once populated this same cul-de-sac!
Art Kleiner - The “Road to Grandstand” from Jerusalem Av, was the key to accurately position the Grandstand’s location in Levittown on today’s map.
Always like the then and now pics,,,