MOTOR SPEED-KING.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1779, 18 June 1913, Page 4

MOTOR SPEED-KING.

THE FIVE HUNDRED MILES INTERNATIONAL. Visiting Wellington at the present timo 13 Mr. Rupert Jolfklns, one of America's speed king 3of the automobile track. The visitor is credited with having covered nearly 500 miles (49? miles to lx> precise) in faster time than 'has ever been accomplished on any track in the world. This wag when ho drove alternately with Ralph de Palmer, on the 'JO horse-power German Mercedes car which won and lost the big 500-mile international race on the Indianapolis speedway on May 30, last year. "Never was there so pathetic a finish to a more brilliant race ever held in the world," said Mr. Jeffkins. "After covering 497 miles, with only three miles to go, and mo 17 miles ahead, averaging over 82 miles per hour, our bearings became red-hot, and we had to pull lip. I give you my word, when we got out of our car, and commenced pushing it along the track thore wera people who cried in the grandstand. After we pulled up, car after car went wrong, and finally the car that was lying tanth when we stopped, won the race—the most sensational and dramatic ever known in the world. The winner was Joe Dawson, who drove a "National' oar. ■He pulled up on all the cars that did not break down, between, the time we pulled out.

"A nice conservative fellow he was," said Mr. Jeffkins, "member cf the Y.M.C.A., and. the luckiest driver that ever sat behind a wheel. We "had this consolation—Palmer and.l—that we were the only two who, unaided, have driven over 500 miles of track, and no one has ever equalled our speed before or after." When you were so far ahead, could you not have pulled up a bit P "Of course we could, if we had had tho brains. But who would have thought of a car going wrong which had notched 82 miles an hour for fivo hours on end? Another three minutes and we would have won 75,000 dollars in prize money and bets. It was the most heart-breaking thing ever known in tho world of sport. Mr. Jefflrins said there were two men killed and several injured in the raco. One man was pierced through the chest bv the broken spokes of one of his front wheels, and the other was thrown over a wall at the top of the speedway, and dropped down a ravine about 150 ft. deep, One could not imagine the wear on the nerves of being concerned in such a race. For six weeks they. trained assiduously on a special diet, and getting used to the track, and during the whole of that time thousands of people visited the speedway to watch the cars spin round and' form conclusions as to the probable winner. For a week before the race people came from long distanoes. ajid camped near the track. Qualifying trials wero held weeks before for cars entered, and none qualified which could not register 75 miles an hour. There were over 500,000 people present at the race, the prices of admission to the speedway ranging from 50 ccnts to 15 dollars. One grandstand, alone was a mile in length. The speedway lap measured 2} miles. ' . , A very fine animated picture of the big race is now being shown, at the Empress Theatre, with Mr. Jeffkins as explanatory lecturer. At the" end of the week he leaves for Sydney.