Vanderbilt Cup Races

Comments on this film have been posted at a unique Long Island website:

LI Oddities: Then and Now

From Film "Vanderbilt Cup Race Courses: Then &Now"

Don, I have added an image of the N5 Mitchell finishing 4th in the 1908 Nassau Sweepstakes .See image above. Starter Fred Wagner can be seen waving the checkered flag.

From Mitchell Car Company Racers

Randy, congratulations on owning this car! Unfortunately, the above newsreel is the only film that I have found concerning the 1915 races.

According to this database, your car was driven by Jack Gable and finished 10th in the American Grand Prize Race held on February 27, 1915:
  http://www.teamdan.com/archive/gen/1915/1915.html

Two weeks later, your car finished 22nd in the Vanderbilt Cup Race on March 6, 1915:

http://www.teamdan.com/archive/gen/indycar/1915.html#5

I have a photo of the cars at the starting line for the 1915 Vanderbilt Cup Race. The #3 Tahis Robinson-Wisconsin is barely visible on the inside of the #4 Mercedes (driven by the 1912 and 1914 winner Ralph DePalma). Here is a link to the image on the blog: http://www.vanderbiltcupraces.com/index.php/blog/article/images_from_the_1915_vanderbilt_cup_races

From Newsreel "1915 Vanderbilt Cup Race"

Mr. Kroplick, I own the Tahis Special (car #3 in this race). Is there any more footage from this race or the U.S. Grand Prix on Feb. 27 available? Thank you. Randy

From Newsreel "1915 Vanderbilt Cup Race"

Don, Mitchells did not enter any of the six Long Island Vanderbilt Cup Races and therefore are not included in the book.

However, three Mitchells did particpate in the Motor Parkway Sweepstakes on October 10, 1908. This race opened the Long Island Motor Parkway and was held two weeks before the Vanderbilt Cup Race over the same course. The N1 and N5 Mitchells participated in the Nassau Sweepstakes finishing 3rd and 4th and the J12 Mitchell raced in the Jericho Sweepstakes and finished 6th.

Go to the “Contact Us” tab and please send me your email address. I will forward several images of the Mitchells from my image database which you can share with the Mitchell Club. One image shows the N1 and N5 cars at the starting line with the drivers and mechanicians wearing distinctive sweaters with the Mitchell logos. Enjoy!

From Mitchell Car Company Racers

Herb, it is great to see The New York Times give some credit to a piece of Long Island history that seems to have been lost over time.

I have also walked and driven the length of Long Island Motor Parkway from Fresh Meadows to Lake Ronkonkoma.

There are still pieces of the road, ruins and concrete posts of this 48-mile parkway along the LIMP right-of-way. In Nassau and Suffolk Counties, the ROW can be easily identified by the tall LIPA electrical utility towers.

My favorite Long Island Motor Parkway locations are:
-the bike paths, concrete posts, and bridges of Queens County
-the Great Neck South High School athletic fields
-the LIMP Bridge and concrete posts at Old Courthouse Road in Manhasset Hills
-the Willis Avenue path and historical marker
-the Roslyn Toll House (now private home) off Roslyn Road
-the bridge abutments and concrete posts near Clinton Road in Garden City
-the restored Garden City Lodge relocated in the heart of Garden City
-the site of the Vanderbilt Cup Race grandstand (1908-1910)near Orchid Road and Crocus Road in Levittown.
-Deadman’s Curve near Sophia Street in Bethpage
-Battlerow in Bethpage
-a LIMP Bridge in Old Bethpage Village Restoration
-the remains of a farmway Bridge on Maxess Road in Melville
-rows of concrete posts in Lakeland in Suffolk County.
-the Lake Ronkonkoma Toll Lodge (now a private home)
-the site of Petit Trianon and the western terminus at Lake Ronkonkoma

FYI, “Old 16” now resides at The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Every Labor Day, Malcolm Cullum, a museum senior conservator, takes the car out for a run through Greenfield Village!

Thanks again for the feedback on the website.

From How much of the Long Island Motor Parkway still exists?

Kevin, thanks for the feedback on the website.

Louis Chevrolet always drove hard in his four Vanderbilt Cup Races (1905, 1908, 1909,and 1910). In the 1910 Vanderbilt Cup Race (22 laps over a 12.64 mile course), Chevrolet led the the race after 7 laps averaging 72 mph. He lost the lead and then regained it during lap 14. However, his Marquette-Buick broke a steering knuckle on lap #16 and crashed into a spectator’s car. The resulting death of his mechanician Charles Miller helped put an end to the Vanderbilt Cup Races on Long Island.

Griffith Borgeson’s book “Golden Age of the American Racing Car” provides an excellent chapter on Louis Chevrolet:

http://books.google.com/books?id=MDMFSp7xTp0C&pg=PA61&dq=Louis+Chevrolet&sig=9LuehLOZuDDSC2oM3IYrDIubc2Q

From Long Before NASCAR, Dirt-Road Daredevils: New York Times March 16, 2008

Hey Howard, read the article in tomorrow’s Times. I am a musician, long time college professor (music, not auto-related) and life-long auto fan. In my high school days (‘48-‘49 ) my car-friends and I searched out as much of the motor parkway as we could get onto. Much of the Nassau area around Glen cove road - just north of Jericho tpk was still around, but not by car, so it was a real joy to ride it on our bikes. We also roared our hot-rods along the motor parkway from around Farmingdale all the way to the Lake! I’ve re-lived that often at a more reasonable rate of speed!! I’ve seen “old 16” when, for a time, it was in an auto museum in Southampton. Look forward to your book, and the videos on the site are cool.

From How much of the Long Island Motor Parkway still exists?

i just read my ny times and saw the article on the vanderbilt cup races. i have lived a few blocks from the vanderbilt motor parkway for 26 years and have always been interested in the history of the race as well historic automobiles and the colorful characters that have shaped the early history of the automobile. the article and your website has provided me with a great deal of wonderful information that was previously unobtainable to the average person.for instance, i did not know that louis chevrolet drove in the race 4 times, but did you know that the last automotive job he held was as an assembly line worker for chevrolet…...go figure…but thats a story for another time…..again many thanks for all the wonderful information..kevin

From Long Before NASCAR, Dirt-Road Daredevils: New York Times March 16, 2008

Virginia:

Great to hear from you.

Eddie Rickenbacker participated in one related American Elimination Trial and two later Vanderbilt Cup Races.

As shown in the above image from the book, when he was 16 years old, Rickenbacker was the driving mechanician in a Frayer-Miller car during the 1906 American Elimination Race held two weeks prior to the Vanderbilt Cup Race. The car completed only 1 of the 10 laps and did not qualify to race for the Cup.

In the 1915 and 1916 Vanderbilt Cup Races, Rickenbacker participated as a driver and later drove in the Indianapolis 500.

I have several images from the period of 1914 and 1916 of Eddie and his mechanicians in their racing cars. Based on various newspaper articles of the day, Rickenbacker used several different mechanicians in these races. However, it appears these images include Rickenbacker and Pete Henderson in the cars. I will keep searching for a photo of your uncle.

From Eddie Rickenbacker and the Vanderbilt Cup Races