Hemmings Classic Car: Racing in Riverhead-The Long Island Stock Chassis Competition of 1909
My good friend and automotive historian Walt Gosden explored the 1909 Long Island Stock Chassis Derby in the August 2020 issue of Hemmings Classic Car. Walt also discovered what happened to Willie K's 90 HP Mercedes.
All photos from the Walt Gosden Collection. Thanks, Walt!
Be Safe, Stay Healthy and Enjoy,
Howard Kroplick
#The #2 Mercedes was previously owned by William K. Vanderbilt, Jr.
The 22-hp Maxwell was driven by Martin Doorley and dropped out of the race before it was finished. As depicted here, many of the cars had no treads remaining on their tires.
Driven by C.H. Lund, this Rainier was built in Flusing, New York and had a 45-hp engine.
Two Rainiers participated in the race. This one, rated at 50 hp, was driven by Loiuis Disbrow.
The 40-hp Sharp Arrow was driven by William Sharp.
Comments
Walt, Thanks for a great article concerning another chapter in L.I. automotive history. By the way, George Loft was a fellow Long Islander, having his estate on Merrick Road in Baldwin. Although now developed into suburban housing, Nassau County’s 14-acre Loft’s Pond Park preserves part of his estate.
The photographs of the race were taken by the grandfather of Hayden Allen of Floral Park,NY where I live. Hayden was the Village of Floral Park Historian just prior to my being appointed to that position over 2 decades ago. In the early 1970s Hayden told me about the photographs that his grandfather took and were in a family photo album. The Allen family had a summer house in Mattituck so his grandfather was there when the race took place. With a Brownie box camera ( anyone recall those?) he got these fairly remarkable photographs - with the hand held box camera. I borrowed the photographs from Hayden and took them to my long time buddy Austin Clark who made negatives of them all. From those negatives ( 4 x 5 inch sheet film) these prints were made which I rediscovered in my library while researching something else. I knew they existed but I have several thousand period photographs in the pre WWII era and sometimes things get “misplaced” ( yes, that is my excuse for having to much stuff) . Thanks to Hemmings Classic Car magazine editor Richard Lintenello for allowing this story to be reproduced here . Thanks to my friend Howard for wanting to print it and share it with all of you.
Walt, re your comment aent the Maxwell’s tires, I’m old enough to remember “barn finds” and such with original tires and I respectfully submit that there WAS no tread on some brands of tires, as new. By the way (contrary to Bhuddist wisdom), one can’t have “too” much stuff - just too much to readily locate what you want when you want it! Global searches don’t seem to work very well in overloaded minds OR in overloaded file cabinets. Thanks for a great posting! Sam, III
Good Sunday Afternoon Mr. Howard Kroplick,
Once again it is my pleasure to compliment you and your LIMPPS enthusiasts for preserving and presenting on your site the marvelous history of motor racing on Long Island , New York at the dawn of the 20th century. Today’s 6-28-2020 post is particularly grand with multiple photo images of William Vanderbilt , Jr.‘s exploits at the wheel of various Mercedes machines. It was a golden age of early efforts at speed and automotive technology and WKV,Jr. was the tip of the spear. Thank you again for bringing historic awareness and enjoyment to persons all over the world , even in Missouri. Be safe and well in these perilous times.
Walt, I believe this postcard from my collection might also be from this event.
HI Gary
Yes, Indeed it is from the same event, no doubt about it. Thanks for looking and sharing this with all of this , GREAT!!!
Walt
From Art Kleiner:
Thank you Walt for the article summarizing the 1909 Long island Stock Derby. The race is just one example of the history of racing on Long Island that most people are not aware of, including the Vanderbilt Cup Races. But thanks to you and others history has a chance to be remembered.
I did some follow up research on the Derby and found the race was originally to be run Sept. 21, however was pushed back to Sept. 29 due to various reasons (distribution of prizes unclear, an impending storm). The local papers played up the race (one noted 75,000 spectators were expected) however, as you indicate the race did not pan out the way it was expected (one paper noted that only 37 people were on the grandstand as many just lined the course to watch), with many businesses and individuals taking a loss. This and the possibility that spectators would be “taxed” at the 1910 race might have contributed to it not occurring the following year as was planned.
Walt, or anyone wanting my compilation of articles taken from local and industry trade publications about the Derby, let me know at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). I have about 25 more. Some are repetitive but others provide a more local flavor.
Articles shown below are from “Automobile Topics”, “The Long-Islander”, “The Motor World” and the “South Side Signal”. The first picture is #11, a Buick driven by Louis Chevrolet.
From Art Kleiner:
Three more . . .
Hemmings has posted a link to Walt’s article (see above).