Car - Race - Eat my dust 1910 Tissue Paper

Colorized photo from 1910, Oct 1 Original title: Beardsley "Simplex" Photographer: Bain News Location: Long Island Motor Parkway, Queens, NY When they first started running the Vanderbilt race, they would use ordinary common roads, like the road in front of your house would be something they drove on. This caused a lot of accidents, people were killed, cars were pulled over for speeding. There would be a lot of dirt and rocks flying out, and with a leather helmet and just goggles, you can see on that guy's face how much dirt he ate. Worse yet, when a winner was called out, people would leave their seats and go home. But use those same roads that the racers were on and still driving on, causing even more chaos. Vanderbilt loved racing cars, so he built a special track just for the race, he created a long stretch of road, which later became the Long Island Motor Parkway. It was built in 1908, it had paved roads, no dirt or rocks. The street was private for the most part, though it did form a loop of 30,4 miles long. It went through Nassau County, NY. As the race evolved, the distance decreased and the laps increased, because it was boring to sit in the stands waiting for the cars to come back and then leave in 10 seconds. The rules were simple if you wanted to join. Your car had to be made in the country it was representing. It couldn't way less than 881 lbs, and no more than 2,204 lbs. The drivers and mechanics had to way at least 132lbs. The 1910 race, used a stretch of road 12.64 miles long, including a 5.15 miles of the LI motor parkway. The winner needed to complete 22 laps for a total of 278.08 miles. This car we see here was the Simplex, driven by Ralph Beardsley, he finished in 15ths place, as he broke his steering gear during the 19th lap. This was the last race in this area, two mechanics were killed and several spectators were injured. You can see there was no crowd control, just a cop, and a thin set of wires. Each race always had some death and injury.