Vanderbilt Cup Races

Excellent addition Stuart!

From Greg O's Garage: From the Helck Family Collection- The 1915 Panama-Pacific Expo and the 1915 Vanderbilt Cup Race

Hi Greg,
Here’s the front cover of the official program for the 1915 Vanderbilt, showing the postponement.

From Greg O's Garage: From the Helck Family Collection- The 1915 Panama-Pacific Expo and the 1915 Vanderbilt Cup Race

Amazing details on the mystery photo by auto historians worldwide. Thank you for clarifying the events of the day.

From Mystery Foto #36 Solved: Four Speed Merchants- Robertson, Christie, Strang and Oldfield at Atlanta Speedway in 1909

Art, I guess Mark Dill might have missed this mystery photo!

From Mystery Foto #36 Solved: Four Speed Merchants- Robertson, Christie, Strang and Oldfield at Atlanta Speedway in 1909

Howard, Check the right rear wheel in the 1908 Pickering photo.

From From the Bryant Local History Collection: Road Tripping with the William Donaldson family of Roslyn from 1912 to the 1920s

On the photo we see from left to right George Robertson, John W. Christie, Louis Strang and Barney Oldfield, with Strang sitting in his Fiat racer. The photo was taken during the Atlanta Speedway races, held from 9 to 12 November 1909, and was published in The Automobile issue of 18 November 1909 p.862. In the caption they were called ‘Speed Merchants’, understandable as they all belonged to the fastest racing drivers of the day. They all have raced in one or more editions of the Vanderbilt Cup, although until 1909 Oldfield only had participated in the American Elimination trials of 1905. Other photos on that page show more nicknames, e.g. the Chalmerites Lorimer, Knipper, Dingley and Matson, daredevil Chevrolet and Marmonite Stillman. Interesting is the photo of Robertson indulging in Coca-Cola …
The logo on Oldfield’s sweater probably stands for Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he won the 25 Miles free for all on a Benz earlier that year (on the 21st of August).

From Mystery Foto #36 Solved: Four Speed Merchants- Robertson, Christie, Strang and Oldfield at Atlanta Speedway in 1909

In 1990 the folks in San Francisco put on an event to celebrate the 1915 races held during the Exposition. As one of the few entrants still surviving, the 1914 Tahis Special was invited to attend. The race cars were to be displayed inside the Palace of Fine Arts rotunda and a car show was held outside on the grounds. Also the race cars were allowed to make two laps of the complete original race course. Needless to say, this was a very fun event and we got to meet a lot of interesting people.

From Greg O's Garage: From the Helck Family Collection- The 1915 Panama-Pacific Expo and the 1915 Vanderbilt Cup Race

Tim, Thanks for the compliments and the photos of your grandfather’s incredible paintings.

Included with this program, but not included in this post, was also a program for the Panama-Pacific Expo being simultaneously held in San Diego at that time. That program also had the same note written on the front as the San Francisco Expo program that he was there with his mother.

From Greg O's Garage: From the Helck Family Collection- The 1915 Panama-Pacific Expo and the 1915 Vanderbilt Cup Race

Lots of guesses today, some educated some not so much. Left to right could be George Robertson, J. Walter Christie, Bob Burman, and Barney Oldfield. They all participated in at least one Vanderbilt Cup Race. Photo may have been taken at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on August 19, 1909 when Burman won the 250 mile Prest-O-Lite trophy driving the Buick he might be sitting in. The logo on Oldfield’s sweater is an early one for Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

From Mystery Foto #36 Solved: Four Speed Merchants- Robertson, Christie, Strang and Oldfield at Atlanta Speedway in 1909

The first picture of the truck is 1912 or earlier White.

From From the Bryant Local History Collection: Road Tripping with the William Donaldson family of Roslyn from 1912 to the 1920s

This is an excellent article which required a lot of research!

The Panama-Pacific Exposition clearly made a big impression on my grandfather, he painted the 1915 Grand Prize and Vanderbilt races several times, usually including the Palace of the Fine Arts in the background. I’m posting a couple of them below: The 1915 Grand Prize and one titled “1938 GP Hypothetical”.

From Greg O's Garage: From the Helck Family Collection- The 1915 Panama-Pacific Expo and the 1915 Vanderbilt Cup Race

It was a journey to make those trips at that time….

From From the Bryant Local History Collection: Road Tripping with the William Donaldson family of Roslyn from 1912 to the 1920s

Sweaters with the IMS logo in these pictures belong to Charles Stutz and Guy Vaughn, other participants at the 1909 IMS.

From Mystery Foto #36 Solved: Four Speed Merchants- Robertson, Christie, Strang and Oldfield at Atlanta Speedway in 1909

George Robertson, Walter Christie, Louis Strang, Barney Oldfied
Robertson: 1905 Elimination Race, 1908 VCR (winner), 1910 VCR
Christie: 1905 VCR, 1906 Eliimination Race, 1906 VCR
Strang: 1908 Motor Parkway Sweepstakes, 1908 VCR, 1909 VCR
Oldfield: no LI VCRs, but did race in the 1914 and 1915 VCRs held elsewhere.  Also entered the 1916 VCR but did not race

Altanta Speedway, Nov. 9-13, 1909
Strang in a FIAT
Oldfield’s logo is from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS).  The sweater with the logo was given to all participants of the first IMS race in 1909 to promote the speedway. 
Photo with the drivers is from asabriarcliff.com, other photos from firstsuperspeedway.com; article is from The New York Times of November 11, 1909.

From Mystery Foto #36 Solved: Four Speed Merchants- Robertson, Christie, Strang and Oldfield at Atlanta Speedway in 1909

The Alco drag racing? The burn out to heat the tires should be interesting!

From Test drive the Mercedes EQ this Sunday

Unless the caption meant; the visible west side of the toll booth that appears here, which should just about confuse EVERYBODY. Nonetheless, this photographer was facing SE

From Kleiner's Korner: Stockholders of the Long Island Motor Parkway

I agree with Al. Photo taken with a SE view from Jericho Tpke. The left side of the booth (dark side) is facing north. This photo was taken sometime in the afternoon

From Kleiner's Korner: Stockholders of the Long Island Motor Parkway

Art, The photo of the toll booth says west view. Don’t think so…..believe we are looking southeast. The door of the booth was located on the east side of the booth as was access to the Parkway from Jericho Tpke.

From Kleiner's Korner: Stockholders of the Long Island Motor Parkway

Al, I agree with local municipalitie’s chopping away at the parkway RoW’s width over many years. Space is always needed to expand. It’s understandable.
I’ve measured the 44.0 mi length of pkwy from the Ronkonkoma Lodge to the Hollis Court Blvd bridge, which is exactly 44.0 mi.
This section of the LIMP was a toll-free ride on the LIMP from Nassau Blvd to the Rocky Hill Lodge, where one can easily exit without paying the toll, I believe this practice was favored by local residents, but I don’t really know for sure.

From Greg O's Garage; Newsday's Big Apple Almanac Part 2

Thanks for he additional info Art!
As I was writing this post I did think to myself if Ford actually completed and sold any cars on the PPIE ‘assembly line’. Thanks for the answer!

From Greg O's Garage: From the Helck Family Collection- The 1915 Panama-Pacific Expo and the 1915 Vanderbilt Cup Race