Vanderbilt Cup Races

Steve Lucas challenged you to identify Harry Grant, winner of the 1909/10 Vanderbilt Cup Races.

Identify;

• The Driver and race car

Harry Grant in his Maxwell race car.

• The Race (Hint: it is NOT a Vanderbilt Cup Race)

Practice for the 1915 Sheepshead Bay Astor Cup

• The Date

Date of the photo: Sept. 20, 1915 Date of accident during practice: Oct. 1, 1915 Date of Sheepshead Bay Astor Cup race: October 7, 1915

• Link the driver to the Vanderbilt Cup Races

Grant won the 1909 and 1910 Vanderbilt Cup races and competed in the 1911, 1914 and 1915 Vanderbilt Cup Races after they moved off of Long Island.

• Kudos: A tragic event happened at this race involving this driver. What was that event?

Grant was tragically killed during practice for the Astor Cup Race in Sheepshead Bay. While practicing for the race on September 27, 1915, the Maxwell racer Grant was driving suddenly burst into flames at nearly 100 miles per hour. Grant slowed and steered the car to the bottom of banking. His riding mechanician, Red Stafford, bailed out to safety. Grant with his five-foot, eleven inch stocky frame, had difficulty extricating himself from behind the steering wheel. While Flames engulfed the car, Eddie Rickenbacker, Grant’s teammate and fellow driver Earl Cooper raced to his aid. The drivers and track workers simply could not help Grant fast enough. He survived the accident and was taken to Coney Island Hospital in Cooper’s Stutz racer. With dreadfully extensive burns from the waist down, he died there days after the accident on October 7, 1915. Harry Grant, the only driver to win two Long Island Vanderbilt Cup Races, was also the only man among the winners of the great Long Island races to lose his life as a result of a racing accident.

Congrats to Art Kliener and Chuck R for identifying this weekend's photo. Kudos to Art for the supporting documentation.

Greg O.