By Phil Roberts
During the same week in August 1909, two cities held what each billed as their first annual automobile race. One race–moved to Memorial Day weekend–grew to become an international classic; the other failed to have a second annual run. Host cities for the two races that week were Indianapolis and Cheyenne. One doesn’t have to be a car-racing fan to know which city’s race continued.
Although the first recognized auto race in the U. S. occurred in 1895 near Chicago, supervised car track races didn’t come into vogue until 1904. By 1908 international road races were being held, including the famous New York-Paris Great Race between cars from several countries. The organizers of the Cheyenne track race may have been prompted by this overland race because the cars passed through town the previous year.
Cheyenne race promoters built a four-mile circular track with the finish line set in front of the Frontier Days grandstand. The races were scheduled as one of the Frontier Days events. Seven cars would compete in the Cheyenne 200. World-class racers would each be accompanied by a mechanic riding in the car. (The Wyoming Semi-Weekly Tribune called them “mechanicians.”) The headline in the Wyoming Tribune proclaimed: “Big Auto Racers Making a Mile a Minute Today” in the Cheyenne 200.
Crowds filled the grandstand and nearby bleachers an hour early and hundreds of spectators were lined around the track in “automobiles, carriages and various other styles of machines.”
The first three events were short races–two of 25 miles and the third of just 12.
The crowd thrilled to the speed of the world’s fastest car, a Stanley Steamer. “He started from the grandstand and the little red car shot by like a streak of red lightning,” the Tribune reported poetically. The Steamer driver developed a slight problem during the exhibition: about half a mile from the grandstand the rear seat of his machine fell off, but he kept on without stopping.
The main event, the 200-mile race, drew seven entrants: an Oldsmobile, a Renault, two Coburns, a Marmon, a Moon and a Buick.
The Buick car was flagged in the fourth lap when a tire fastened on the back became loosened and was dragging.
The driver of the Olds had to stop to adjust a spark plug and “lost considerable time,” according to one report, but another newspaper, the Cheyenne State Leader claimed, while the car was setting a record, it did so “without a stop.”
Race officials kept a log of what happened on every lap and the newspapers printed how the race progressed: “On the fourth lap [the Buick] made a startling pass, going by the French Renault on a dangerous turn near the grandstand. The Buick had to stop in the 13th lap to repair a radiator and by the 20th lap, it was out due to the break.”
Three laps later, the Moon auto went out with a broken frame, but no explanation was given of the exact damage.
Both Coburns, too, dropped out of the race, one with a broken axle and the other after a spectacular crash.
“The Olds was in danger of being beaten more than once during the race, but kept speeding along and passed each contender one at a time, either a wreck or unable to move from want of gasoline or water.” Brinker, in the Moon, passed Fletcher in the seventh lap and took first place, but was able to hold it for only three laps before his engine died for the want of gasoline at the 3-mile post. Then in the thirtieth lap, the Colburn 40 was ahead of the Olds. In time, although the latter was not passed by the Colburn: “The Colburn 40 was a strong and persistent contender for first place from the fourteenth lap until the thirty-seventh, when it turned a triple somersault at the two mile post, probably fatally injuring Griffith, the driver.”
Spectators interviewed by another newspaper told about the mishap:
“The Renault had been hugging the bank and was creeping up on the other cars. The Coburn driver, noting the Renault’s success, tried the same thing. The driver was looking back at the time he lost control of the car. [It] struck a bank, jumped into the air and made a complete somersault, throwing the mechanic out of the car but holding the driver under it.” The driver, E. A. Griffith of California, later died from the injuries. Estimated speed of the car was over 50 miles per hour at the time of the crash.
With only four laps left, three cars were still in the race.
Rain started falling and it spelled trouble for the Renault. The rain caused a short in the magneto, preventing a spark. The Oldsmobile, the only car to finish the 50 laps, was declared the winner with an average speed of 54.4 mph. The winning time was a new world record, eclipsing the Indianapolis 250 track mark of 53.8 mph set the following day.
As the Cheyenne State Leader reported: “Driving, his car around the, four mile course fifty times, or 200 miles, without a stop, Martin Fletcher brought the Oldsmobile under the wire, not only the winner, but a record-breaker also, yesterday evening at 6:40 o’clock. The time in which the 200 miles was made is officially given out as 3 hours, 39 minutes, and 47 seconds. This is a new record, beating the former world’s record by 24 minutes and 9 seconds”.
Fletcher earned another record during the race: “Fletcher not only claims the world’s record for a 208-mile race, but he is also accredited by the Cheyenne Motor club officials with making a new record on a single 4-mile lap, when in the 34th lap, he clipped it off in three minutes and 40 seconds”
The Wyoming Semi-Weekly Tribune credited Fletcher’s “mechanician,” Jim ‘Red” McDonald, for the victory. “The successful Oldsmobile was nursed through the 200-mile run” by McDonald, the article pointing out that his “careful handling of the machine brought success…” (Wyoming Semi-Weekly Tribune, Aug. 20, 1909, p. 1).
The death of the Coburn driver was described, but Cheyenne newspapers, apparently anxious not to emphasize the casualty, highlighted the danger of the Indianapolis event. “Seven Killed During the Automobile Race There,” a Cheyenne headline read. (Indianapolis readers pointed out that the count was deceptive because one victim, a young boy, had died when he was hit by a car driven by an elderly doctor on his way to see the race).
Cheyenne hosted other auto races over the next decade, including one in which racing legend Barney Oldfield set a dirt track record. But the races soon were discontinued. Reasons for the suspension are not known although legend has it that Frontier Days officials complained that cars were damaging the park track.
Meanwhile, in Indianapolis, the event first held the same week as the Cheyenne 200, evolved into an auto racing classic and Memorial Day event of national interest.
Sources:
‘World’s Record is Broken in Auto Race Meet, But One Game Contestant Lies Dying,” Cheyenne State Leader, Aug. 18, 1909, 1.
“Red” McDonald’s Ride on the Winning Car; Successful Oldsmobile Was Nursed Through Two Hundred Mile Run by Mechanician, Whose Careful Handling of Machine Brought Success,” Wyoming Semi-Weekly Tribune, Aug. 20, 1909, 1.
“Ride to Their Death: Two Deaths In Auto Races at Indianapolis,” Laramie Boomerang, Aug. 21, 1909, 3.
“Complete Record of 200-mile Race by Laps,” Wyoming Semi-Weekly Tribune, Aug. 20, 1909, 1