Vanderbilt Cup Races

Wonderful progress report on a very significant car. I do not participate in Facebook and the era of the car is not my focus but this is one super neat preservation and restoration of a great machine!

From Restoration Update -July 30,2021: 1962 Holman Moody Challenger III' s windshield and gas tanks

The excitement jumps off of every sentence…

From Excerpt from "The Legend of the First Super Speedway": Barney Oldfield at the 1904 Vanderbilt Cup Race

Driver: Ralph Mulford (winner)
Mechanician: Billy Chandler
Racer: Lozier
Race: Vanderbilt Cup Race
Date: November 27, 1911
Location: Savannah, GA

From Mystery Foto #30 Solved: Ralph Mulford winning the 1911 Vanderbilt Cup Race in the #8 Lozier

PS:  the number 22 car is the winner of the Savannah race, Hughie Hughes driver of the Mercer.

From Mystery Foto #30 Solved: Ralph Mulford winning the 1911 Vanderbilt Cup Race in the #8 Lozier

November 27, 1911 8th Vanderbilt Cup at Savannah GA.
Winning #8 Lozier driven by Ralph Mulford with mechanician Billy Chandler.
Of interest to me is that The Lozier Motor Company started in Plattsburg, NY

From Mystery Foto #30 Solved: Ralph Mulford winning the 1911 Vanderbilt Cup Race in the #8 Lozier

I see Mobil Oil, Valvoline, and Michelin Tires advertised, products that are still sold today. This photo is none of the Vanderbilt Cup Races on Long Island (1904-1910), nor the Sweepstakes and American Elimination Trial races. I’m stumped. The photo doesn’t look like early Long Island terrain, but more like a race track. Probably early Indy 500 based on those early race machines. What excitement it must’ve been to test these early machines towards optimal performance, a practice that continues today with more modern racers.

From Mystery Foto #30 Solved: Ralph Mulford winning the 1911 Vanderbilt Cup Race in the #8 Lozier

Mystery Foto # 30… The driver is Ralph Mulford with mechanician John Horan in the Lozier race car. The race is the Vanderbilt Cup for November 12, 1911 in Savannah, Georgia. Ralph won that race in the Lozier.
There was another race that weekend in which Ralph participated. That was the Grand Prize race.
F.Y.I., Ralph was known as the Gumdrop Kid because of his favorite snack.
Ralph did a lot of racing including the Indy 500, which he drove in ten times.

From Mystery Foto #30 Solved: Ralph Mulford winning the 1911 Vanderbilt Cup Race in the #8 Lozier

#8 51hp Lozier driven by Ralph Mulford. Finished 1st. Completed the race, averaging 73.4 mph in Savannah, Georgia, November 27, 1911

From Mystery Foto #30 Solved: Ralph Mulford winning the 1911 Vanderbilt Cup Race in the #8 Lozier

Unfortunately these pictures reflect only a small portion of the many accidents that occurred on the Motor Parkway.  As autos became more than just a mode of transportation for the rich, the roads and local governments couldn’t keep up with the safety needs of the users.  While much has improved since then, including the use of technology, all you need to do is travel the highways of LI (and up and down the east coast as I’ve recently been doing) to see that excessive speed and recklessness (among other causes) still are rampant with the same result of way too many accidents.  My soap box for today.  Let’s all slow down a bit.

From Greg O's Garage: Wrecks of The Long Island Motor Parkway including a racer practicing for the 1925 Indy 500

Al-
Those are my initial thoughts as well.

From Greg O's Garage: Wrecks of The Long Island Motor Parkway including a racer practicing for the 1925 Indy 500

A part of Long Island history I’d never heard of before!

From Kleiner's Korner: Petting Parties on the Motor Parkway

A truly cringe worthy photo collection!  😊

From Greg O's Garage: Wrecks of The Long Island Motor Parkway including a racer practicing for the 1925 Indy 500

Thanks Greg, and for your work with the old photographs! It’s great that these deeply-buried photos of the old Motor Parkway are increasingly becoming available for everyone now to view, after more than a century hidden in the vaults. Much thanks to Bill Cruickshank, descendant of the Meadow Brook lodge, for the family photo collection contributions.

Photo below:
The McCamish family at the Meadow Brook lodge 1936/1937
Left to right:, Wallace, Pernelle, Otto and Doris.

From Greg O's Garage: Wrecks of The Long Island Motor Parkway including a racer practicing for the 1925 Indy 500

Greg O.  The last photo, the one with the “exit only” sign, could that be a temporary exit off the Parkway used by west bound motorists during the 1936/1937 Vanderbilt Cup Races ?

From Greg O's Garage: Wrecks of The Long Island Motor Parkway including a racer practicing for the 1925 Indy 500

Greg O,  Regarding the photo with the caption on the back saying the “car over turns on Motor Parkway in Garden City”. That could be a little confusing today.  Note that there is no concrete extension of the roadway which was laid down west of Merrick Ave. in that area in 1931.  My take ? ....the photo was on taken just east of Merrick Ave.  and we are looking north east with the fairway of the 17th hole of Red Couse abutting the Parkway ROW.

From Greg O's Garage: Wrecks of The Long Island Motor Parkway including a racer practicing for the 1925 Indy 500

Dear Robert, If you are interested in identification of these cars and if you want to share these photos on this website, it’s always a pleasure to be of help. Of course you’re also welcome to send them directly to my mail address (Howard will know this).

From Mystery Foto #29 Solved: A 1910 Maxwell Model E Touring and a 1916 Overland Model 83 Touring from Professor Robert Kraft's Family Album

Thanks for the help with identifying the old autos. G’ma’s albums have a few other such images of cars from about the same time (1910-20), if anyone is interested. All the pix are digitized.

From Mystery Foto #29 Solved: A 1910 Maxwell Model E Touring and a 1916 Overland Model 83 Touring from Professor Robert Kraft's Family Album

Yes, I’m laughing at your comment, Al. I hope dad was just playing and posing for he camera. I hope he didn’t hit the poor old “T”.

From Mystery Foto #29 Solved: A 1910 Maxwell Model E Touring and a 1916 Overland Model 83 Touring from Professor Robert Kraft's Family Album

Beautiful painting! Proves that it’s easy to fix a Model T, all you need is a hammer.

From Mystery Foto #29 Solved: A 1910 Maxwell Model E Touring and a 1916 Overland Model 83 Touring from Professor Robert Kraft's Family Album

Frank- The original photo that Bill Cruickshank sent me has a slightly better resolution and a little easier to see Zinzi’s number 1 on the badge.

From Greg O's Garage: Wrecks of The Long Island Motor Parkway including a racer practicing for the 1925 Indy 500