Vanderbilt Cup Races

Hello Frederic Marije, I’m currently researching the history of a specific Bugatti which might been in Nantes, where the Bugatti dealership of your grandfather was located. Is it possible to get in touch with you? (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address))

Thanks in advance

From Hemmings Classic Car: The Vanderbilt Cup- America's first internationally recognized road-race

Art, A Mrs. Caroline M. Jackson owned a 300 acre parcel in Melville that fronted on Round Swamp Rd, westward to the Nassau County line between Old Country Rd. and the Northern State Parkway at the time. Could there have been a connection with the Pony Farm ?

From Kleiner's Korner: Real Estate Transactions Near the Motor Parkway - May, 1926

As lifelong horse people we’re intrigued by the Jackson Pony Farm. We wonder what type of horses they bred there. The military usually supplied stallions to breeders in order to have influence on the type of horses raised and had right of first refusal to each year’s crop. JeRita

From Kleiner's Korner: Real Estate Transactions Near the Motor Parkway - May, 1926

Ellison Avenue, 1926

From Mystery Friday Foto #38 Solved: The Spinney Hill Turn from the 1906 Course

Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1BHbvor_bI&t=1626s

From InstaGRAM Report: A YouTube video tour of the AACA Museum’s Chrysler Imperials exhibit with Chrysler's Chrysler

We are looking south down Lakeville Road from the intersection with North Hempstead Tpke. (Northern Blvd) with the grandstand set up for the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup Race. Today it is the northern-most portion of Lake Success but back then it was probably Manhasset. Four houses down was John Dennelly’s farm and home which he called “Maple Cottage”. It was temporarily being used as the headquarters for Joe Tracy and the Locomobile race tram.

From Mystery Friday Foto #38 Solved: The Spinney Hill Turn from the 1906 Course

I believe this is Northern Blvd turning onto Community Drive.  Well… at least that is what it is today.  Back then, Spiney Hill Rd.  The grandstands are for the VCR.

From Mystery Friday Foto #38 Solved: The Spinney Hill Turn from the 1906 Course

Clarence Mackay’s Harbor Hill estate with Carriage House in today’s East Hills, NY. The estate was built at Nassau County’s highest elevation. Mackay was a Vanderbilt Cup Race official and close friend of William Vanderbilt II. The planes are likely from Roosevelt Air Field, Garden City, around 1920s?

From UPDATE 9/16/26: Mystery Friday Foto #37 Solved: A Flight Over Clarence Mackay's Harbor Hill Estate

Gary, I saw John Kennedy’s motorcade that day going down Hempstead Turnpike in East Meadow.

I still remember Kenndy waving to me and my friends in a downpour.

From InstaGRAM Report: Rare Home Film of Antique Automobile Racing at the 1960 Long Island Fair

I’m pretty sure the unidentified horseless carriage was Oyster Bay resident Harold Kraft’s 1908 Sears Model J.  See attached photos I took of Harold & the car back on October 22, 1978 at the “Town of Oyster Bay 325th Anniversary Grand Parade and Vanderbilt Cup Race”. 
The 1960 Mineola Fair and Industrial Exposition at Roosevelt Raceway was held from Oct. 7-16, 1960.  On Thursday, October 12th, Senator John F. Kennedy, spoke before a crowd of 10,000 in the parking lot outside the Fairgrounds at Roosevelt Raceway, on his first Long Island campaign trip; one month later he would be elected President of the U. S.  This was the last “Mineola Fair”, 1961 would be the first Long Island Fair.

From InstaGRAM Report: Rare Home Film of Antique Automobile Racing at the 1960 Long Island Fair

mackay estate roslyn

From UPDATE 9/16/26: Mystery Friday Foto #37 Solved: A Flight Over Clarence Mackay's Harbor Hill Estate

I believe the plane is either a Fairchild 71 or Fairchild FC-2. The estate is Harbor Hill owned by Clarence Mackay with the main house in the foreground and the horse stables and garage behind it. I’ll guess the year to be around 1930. Mackay was an investor in and director of the LIMP and as a friend of Willie K., attended the Vanderbilt Cup Races. As the plane is marked “Roosevelt Flying Corporation”, I believe it was based at Roosevelt Field (adjacent to the LIMP) where it was used for flying lessons and training.

From UPDATE 9/16/26: Mystery Friday Foto #37 Solved: A Flight Over Clarence Mackay's Harbor Hill Estate

I was at that fair and recall it well. It just reinforced my interest in car with running boards. I remember Austin Clark in his Stutz (as mentioned) he was always very cordial to everyone and right after that my parents took me to see his auto museum in Southampton. A dozen years after this event I would become Austin’s librarian for his collection of paper, and photographs on vehicles at his home in Glen Cove. This included 47 four drawer steel filing cases of glass plate negatives that were the Mack Truck archives. Mack started in Brooklyn, when they moved to Allentown in 1953 the glass plate negatives of their trucks were to be destroyed - Austin saved them - paid help to get them transported from Brooklyn to Glen Cove! As librarian handling the negatives was an effort as the edges of the glass plates were sharp. Decades later in the late 1970s Mack requested to have their archives - that they didn’t save - and Austin returned them to them. All done with the help of my friend John Montville who wrote the history of the Mack company in a book and also an additional one named “Bulldog”.
Oh the stories I could tell…....

From InstaGRAM Report: Rare Home Film of Antique Automobile Racing at the 1960 Long Island Fair

I lived on 117th St.in So.Ozone Park,Queens.My next door neighbor was Cheap Mike Auto,who raced 258 and 259 at Freeport,with Al DeAngelo and Ronnie Herrar.I was good friends with his son,Mike Jr.,went to Freeport every Fri./Sat in the mid fifties.I also remember Les Lee #1 and Georgie Cousin #3

From Mystery Friday Foto #27 Solved: Freeport Racetrack/Stadium

How very interesting!  Thank You! Ann

From InstaGRAM Report: Rare Home Film of Antique Automobile Racing at the 1960 Long Island Fair

Good article comparing the Lucid Car company of today, with the Tucker Corporation of 1948.
The author needed that ride in Howard’s Tucker to finish his research before writing his article.Im sure he will never forget his ride in #1044.

From Hemmings.com: Before Lucid’s Four-Door Dream, There Were Tuckers

Lee, thanks great catch!  I should have known my spelling error- I was raised only three miles from Mitchel Field in East Meadow and remember the airplanes flying over my home.

Enjoy,

Howard Kroplick

From Update: Mystery Friday Foto #36 Solved: A Kelly-Springfield Truck at Mitchel Field

‘Mitchell Field’ is in Milwaukee.  It is NOT the same as ‘Mitchel Field’ on LI!

https://www.mitchellairport.com/airport-information/history#General-Mitchell

From Update: Mystery Friday Foto #36 Solved: A Kelly-Springfield Truck at Mitchel Field

That looks like the Mackey Estate in Roslyn, NY.

From UPDATE 9/16/26: Mystery Friday Foto #37 Solved: A Flight Over Clarence Mackay's Harbor Hill Estate

I remember Roosevelt Raceway and the Long Island Fair, but I don’t remember auto races or horse diving. As young boys, I and my brothers would call the orange tower the “henhouse” after an episode of the “Deputy Dawg” cartoon.

The 1960 Lincoln Continental was an all-new and timeless design, and quite a change from the over-styled 1959 models.

Fun video. I love the surf music! Is it The Ventures?

From InstaGRAM Report: Rare Home Film of Antique Automobile Racing at the 1960 Long Island Fair