Mystery Foto #8 Solved: George Arents Jr.‘s Crash on the Course
Did you identify George Arents Jr.'s wreck on the course?
Identify;
- The Race Car
The number #5 Mercedes in the 1904 Vanderbilt Cup Race.
- Driver and Mechanician
Driver George Arents Jr. with Mechanician Carl Mensel
- What caused the wreck?- Any injuries?
During the 1904 Vanderbilt Cup Race, he was involved in an accident in which his Mercedes overturned resulting in the death of his driving mechanic Carl Mensel. After several weeks of recuperation, George Arents, Jr. recovered from his injuries.
- The unfortunate 'first' that the wreck represented
Mechanician Carl Mensel was the first fatality of all the Vanderbilt Cup Races.
Comments (3)
Congrats to Bob Barauskas for completely answering this week's mystery photo.
Greg O.
Comments
THE AUTOMOBILE WAS A MERCEDES #5 IN THE 1904 VANDERBILT CUP RACE.
THE DRIVER WAS GEORGE ARENTS JR. THE MECHANICIAN WAS CARL MENSEL
THE AUTOMOBILE OVERTURNED IN ELMONT KILLING THE MECHANICIAN, CARL MENSEL.
IT WAS THE FIRST FATALITY IN THE VANDERBILT CUP RACES.
This was a real challenge. At first I was trying to associate the photo with the 1906 crash of J. W. Christie in his namesake racer; then Louis Chevrolet in 1910 with the Buick; then Robertson in the 1906 Apperson “Jack Rabbit”. No luck on any of them so I’m going with the Knox racer at the 1909 opening of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the Prest-O-Lite Trophy Race in which both driver (William Bourque) and mechanician (Harry Holcomb) became the first deaths at Indy after Bourque looked back to see who was gaining on him, lost control and flipped over.
Arents was also a famous book collector!
I believe the last corner of the Bridgehampton Race Circuit was known as “Arents’ Corner” because another George Arents (son of the Arents of the1904 crash) wrecked a Ferrari TDF there on the opening weekend of the then-new track in 1957.
Michael Luftman - The Bridgehampton Race Course with Arents’ turn.