Vanderbilt Cup Races

Additional documentation (article from Motor Age, Mar. 18, 1915).

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

Nice post, Greg!  Henry Ford had three exhibits in three different “Palaces” at the exposition.  One was actually a miniature factory replicating one of his main plants (the attached ad states that 25 cars were produced there each day).  The others dealt with how Ford’s profit sharing plan improved the lives of its workers and a motion picture of a Ford plant.

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

Looks like a fun time was had!

From Update: Videos and highlights of the 2021 Port Jefferson Hill Climb

Frank, The Parkway was some what technically shorter when it closed in 1938 compared to the length of when it first opened. Over the years as municipalities widened roads that interacted with the Parkway, property was taken from the Parkway ROW to widen such roads especially in Suffolk County.  Don’t recall the exactly how much was taken for the widening of Commack Rd., but it was substantial. In 1929 the State took 50 feet of the Pky ROW to widened Jericho Tpke. thru Mineola A good deal of property was taken in Queens by the City when the bridges were built, prior to that the cross roads to be bridged were for the most part only 16 feet wide. Later on with the building of Union Tpke., the Pky lost quite a bit of yardage there also. These are just some samples.

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

HotRod Jen:

Thanks Howard for bringing another cool piece of history back into the view of many. Can’t wait to see the final assembly, and happy to have been a part of it.

From Restoration Update: Video: HotRod Jen recreates the hand-painted #26 racing numbers and bullets for the Holman Moody Challenger III

Comments

Glen Skidmore: HotRod Jen does it again! Awesome! 
William Keith Skidmore: That’s my girl
Kevin Sponagle: A true Artist
Tom May: Awesome job!!
Steve Van Blarcom: Good work Jen.
Tim Bennett: She’s so talented
Brian Applegate: She does such nice work.
Paul Fry: Dead on
John Peters: Awesome job!
Al Liebmann:  She nailed it
Michael Urbanski: Hotrod Jen is fabulous
MR Rivera: Beautiful history coming back to life! Great job, HRJen!
Philip Quinto: She is the best!
Chris Nelson: I’m always amazed by her work!
Michael Lempert: This looks amazing!
Wanda Blanchet: She’s awesome
John McCartney: Very cool another great job
Bob Macdonald: Crazy cool.
Tom Fitzsimmons: Quality
Fernando Jumeau: 100 % ART !!
Jukebox Jimmy: Nice
Joseph L. Smith: She does great work!
Dale Striewski: Awesome job as always HotRod Jen
John R Tucker Jr.: Such a great artist!
Charles Pivirotto: nice
Rob Ida: Jen’s a super talent! Always happy to have her on our team
jerrykeefer: So awesome!
lude2lust: Amazing skills
mikestringer1969: Looks nice. Hell of a lot better than just putting decals on it.
bbqlips: Perfect!!
lesterbaldwin: That’s just perfect
thescrutineer: The best
jburke79x:Nice touch
pinstripedelight: She’s the real deal…
cf_cc_: Fantastic work
notstockphoto: Rad she’s awesome

From Restoration Update: Video: HotRod Jen recreates the hand-painted #26 racing numbers and bullets for the Holman Moody Challenger III

Did Kienzle’s 1936 letter have a typo; most likely not. The one-mile discrepancy continues to haunt.

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

This again is the 1905 Locomobile commissioned by Harold Thomas of Chicago, Illinois. I can’t identify the driver or mechanician but the driver is probably the same as the guy who drove the car in the 1906 Vanderbilt cup. It is nice to see these additional pictures of the car come up. It is routinely confused with old 16 but the two cars were very different. This car had a 7x7 b&s T head motor while old 16 has an F head. It appears as though Andrew Riker tried to erase this car from history so that nothing would overshadow old sixteen’s win in the 1908 Vanderbilt Cup Race. The history of this car disappears in the shadow of old 16.

From Mystery Foto #35 Solved: Robert C. Watson, Jr. was Willie K's mechanician at the 1904 Ormond Daytona Tournament

Mystery foto #35… William K. Vanderbilt II is the driver and the car is his 90 HP Mercedes. The location is Ormond-Daytona Beach Auto Tournament. And the date is January 1904. This Mercedes with Willie K driving set a one mile land speed record on the beach going 92.3mph.

I am afraid I can not identify R.C. W. jr.

From Mystery Foto #35 Solved: Robert C. Watson, Jr. was Willie K's mechanician at the 1904 Ormond Daytona Tournament

That’s Willie K. in his 90 HP Mercedes that he had ordered in 1903 and was delivered in January, 1904. The location is on the beach between Ormond and Daytona, Florida. The date is probably January 27, 1904. Around this time, Willie K. set several land speed records most notably for the fastest one mile which had recently been established by Henry Ford. I believe the mechanician could be Robert Charles Watson who was from Rochester, NY, was a bank president and had investment interests in railroads, which could be the Vanderbilt connection. His initials are on one attached photo which appears to have been taken at the same time. The other attached photo identifies a R. C. Watson as having been at the 1908 V. C. Races. Both photos show a person who appears to resemble the mystery mechanician.

From Mystery Foto #35 Solved: Robert C. Watson, Jr. was Willie K's mechanician at the 1904 Ormond Daytona Tournament

W. K. Vanderbilt set a new world one mile record at Ormond Beach January 26, 1904 driving a 90 HP Mercedes with a time of 39 seconds.
Vanderbilt lowered Henry Ford’s January 12, 1904 record of .39 2-5 on frozen Lake St. Clair.
Of interest is the official timing.  Vanderbilt and Ford both used regulation timing rather than the Mors timing instrument.  Regulation timing used stop watches and the start line and finish line and the times averaged and subtracted.

From Mystery Foto #35 Solved: Robert C. Watson, Jr. was Willie K's mechanician at the 1904 Ormond Daytona Tournament

Al - you’re right! Let me start with mileage;

The Commack Spur measurement by Google Earth satellite still matches at 2.10 mi. 
I originally measured the 45.4 mi. LIMP length from Nassau Blvd to the Petit Trianon circle. That was a mistake.
After adjustments, the new measurements from Nassau Blvd to the Ronkonkoma lodge measured at 45.01 miles.  I don’t have an answer for the one-mile discrepancy.

Al, you’re correct again. There were still three existent lodges at the time of the article, which were modified into something else; Great Neck, Mineola, and Ronkonkoma. Great info as always Al! Thank you. 

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

Frank, Regarding inaccuracies in the Newsday Cartoon Series, there are a couple in the 9/17/95 issue. Pope was responsible for just the first six lodges, not twelve. Also, besides the Roslyn and Garden City lodges still standing in 1995, there were at least three others, right ?

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

Frank, On May 12, 1936,  Kienzle, in a letter to the financier Ivor B. Clark, states the Parkway is exactly 44 miles long and the Commack spur is 2.1 miles in length making for a total of 46.1 miles.

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

-The driver and his automobile

Willie K. In his 1903 90hp Daimler

-The location

Ormond Beach Florida

-The approximate date

Sometime between January 28, 1904 to February 1, 1904 when the Ormond Beach contests were held.

-What is significant about this automobile?

Willie K. broke the one-mile land speed record going 92.3 mph at Ormond in 1904

-Kudos question- I do not have an answer.
Identify the mechanician. Hint: His initials are R.C.W., Jr. Provide the rationale for your answer.

We may never know. There was never much information or reporting on mechanicians back then. I reached out to Dan Smith, former Vice-President of the board of directors for the Ormond Beach Historical Society and The Motor Racing Heritage Association, and even he was unsure of the individuals’ identity, but did mention he will look into it further.

From Mystery Foto #35 Solved: Robert C. Watson, Jr. was Willie K's mechanician at the 1904 Ormond Daytona Tournament

I don’t know off hand but guessing it’s Willie K (after!) driving his 1-mile-speed-breaker Mercedes in Ormand, Fl. It looks like a beach-front environment (Willie K is facing the ocean here in the racer). I can’t identify the mechanician though. His face is clearly displayed in the photo. Anticipating this week’s answers that might identify the mechanician. Standing by. Great photo!

From Mystery Foto #35 Solved: Robert C. Watson, Jr. was Willie K's mechanician at the 1904 Ormond Daytona Tournament

Willie K. in his 90 HP Mercedes. 
Ormond Beach, FL
Sometime between Jan. 26 and Jan. 31, 1904.
Significant features:
A wicker driver’s seat
No fenders
A low mechanician’s seat
One hood strap
Oil tank on mechanician’s side
Horn on the left side
Bracket in front of mechanician’s position
No chain guards
This Mercedes was engraved on the Vanderbilt Cup trophy.
Kudos: R.C.W. Jr. are the initials of Robert C. Watson, Jr., a friend of Willie K. from LI and a prominent golfer of the time.  He accompanied Willie to Ormond and participated in the car’s test runs.  Based on Brooklyn Daily Eagle and NY Times articles of the time.

From Mystery Foto #35 Solved: Robert C. Watson, Jr. was Willie K's mechanician at the 1904 Ormond Daytona Tournament

WOW! Amazing Newsday cartoon articles that included accurate events of the Vanderbilt Cup Races on Long Island. I missed this in the ‘90s. I now know why. Great post Greg, thank you and Al for sharing these gems. I began looking for any inaccuracies but could not find any except the length of the parkway. I still believe it was a 45.4 mi. length, end-to-end, not including the Jericho spur (connecting Motor Pkwy to the Jericho Tpke entrance). Great post guys
‘’

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

I obviously had a comprehension issue on this one! I was mentally stuck on Birdie’s father.

From Mystery Foto #34 Solved: Willie K in his 1900 Daimler White Ghost at the Brookholt Estate in East Meadow

You forwarded that mystery foto Ernie, courtesy of Tim Lavey. The real remedy for the flooding problem was Basins. That photo clearly shows the LIMP ROW higher than the surrounding ground back then. Know the ROW was filled in along this stretch, except where catch basins were dug out.

From Kleiner's Korner: What Became of the Vanderbilt Cup Race Grandstand?