Ace sets record on city speedway

Like any racer, Eddie Rickenbacker was driven by the numbers.

Heading into the Montamarathon Classic at the Tacoma Speedway, the future World War I flying ace was looking at these figures on Aug. 5, 1916:

 • Three hundred miles of racing around the 2-mile track, a high-banked wooden oval.

 • More than three hours behind the wheel of his Maxwell Special, with its wide-open cockpit, hulking engine and skinny tires. His “mechanician” – who The Tacoma Sunday Ledger identified only as “Henderson” – would ride beside him, ready to fix whatever necessary at 80-plus mph.

 • Thirteen competitors, including two racing legends, Ralph DePalma, who’d won the Indianapolis 500 the year before, and Barney Oldfield, the first person in history to drive 60 mph.

 • Prize money totaling $10,000, with $4,000 going to the winner.

But in the end, the only number that really mattered to the 25-year-old Rickenbacker was his finishing spot – No. 1, matching the numerals painted on both sides of his race car and its grill.

Rickenbacker and the other top racers of the day had traveled to Tacoma for the latest showdown on the national auto racing circuit.

“Tacoma was a good place to race,” Rickenbacker said years later. “It was one of the big ones.”

Usually the racers came west for a July 4 race right after finishing the Indy 500 on Memorial Day. But the 1916 competition was postponed a month because of a grudge match – canceled at the last minute – between a Tacoma racer and his Seattle opponent.

The delay hurt the Montamarathon turnout, which was estimated at 7,000 to 9,000, down from about 50,000 the previous year.

Still, the weeklong buildup to the classic was front-page news. A banner story in the Saturday afternoon Tacoma Daily News was able to report the start of the race, if nothing after.

The racers, the speedway and the fans didn’t lack for protection that day. Under bright sunshine, a squad of 100 coast artillerymen from American Lake policed the track. What The Sunday Ledger called “speed cops” and other police officers lined the route to the event.

An ambulance and a hospital tent stood ready. Neither saw much action during a race that had no serious accidents.

The crowd cheered Oldfield, who answered them with what The Daily News described as “a few puffs of his cigar and a broad smile.” Just before the race “the master driver” handed his watch and chain and his rings to his wife, who headed for the grandstands and saw him eventually finish seventh in his Delage race car.

When Sterling Price climbed into his Gandy Special, a bandage covered part of his face. In practice a few days before he’d hurt his left eye, in addition to tearing several ligaments in his shoulder and banging up his arm.

As the 2:30 p.m. start of the race neared, movie cameramen and a battery of press photographers pushed in for their shots after the racers and their riding mechanics gathered with their “luridly painted speed mounts” on the start-finish line.

Rickenbacker began the race from the front row, alongside three other racers. Another three rows followed them under the starter’s flag.

“The cars came down the track for a flying getaway in perfect formation, their motors drumming like a dozen machine guns,” The Ledger reported. “The four front cars crossed the line simultaneously, and within two seconds the others were on the long trail.”

Almost instantly, Arthur Johnson in the No. 7 Crawford was in trouble.

A flying rock smashed into his goggles, sending a shard of glass into his eye. He finished the first lap, pulled into the pits and called for a doctor. When nobody showed up he sprinted for the hospital tent and had the glass removed.

After about five minutes Johnson’s teammates sent his car back into the race in the hands of another driver. Johnson ran back to his pit to find his car missing. He was behind the wheel on the next lap and struggled on until dropping out by midrace.

Back at the front, DePalma’s Mercedes was first after the opening lap, with Rickenbacker second and Dave Lewis third in another Crawford.

“It was a thrilling race throughout,” The Ledger said, “filled with exciting rushes in the home stretch that brought the crowd to its feet time and again.”

Kicking up dirt and hitting speeds in the high 80s, Rickenbacker was soon battling DePalma for the lead. He took it on lap 16.

Thirty laps later, the leaders, according to The Ledger, “were cutting rings out of the hourglass in an effort to win the $200 special money for the leading car at the first century.”

Meanwhile, Rickenbacker pitted for four tires and gas.

“Whether it was luck or carefully considered generalship,” the newspaper said, “it was the last time Eddie stopped until he got the victor’s checkered flag.”

It took one hour, 42 minutes and 43 seconds to hit the halfway point of the race. DePalma was leading with an average speed of 87.7 mph. Lewis was in second, and Rickenbacker right behind him.

Lewis, who finished the race in third, lived through one of the day’s highlights.

“Repeatedly Lewis stepped on his ‘gas’ control and swept around the leaders on the curves, in the straightaways or any old place,” The Ledger reported. “Now and then he himself was passed, as in his 81st lap, when his car went into the pits on fire.

“Pail after pail of water was poured on the blaze, then he took on oil and gas and changed a front tire and was off again.”

Beginning on the 90th lap, Rickenbacker again battled “neck and neck” with DePalma, passing him 23 laps later and drawing away. DePalma eventually finished fourth; Rickenbacker set the fast lap of the race on lap 100 with a speed of 96 mph.

With the race drawing to a close, Rickenbacker was leading by 31/2 laps. A final spurt by Thomas Milton’s Dusenberg in second place cut the lead to 2 1/2 laps.

After 3 hours, 21 minutes and 40.11 seconds of racing, Rickenbacker crossed under the checkered flag, posting the sixth win of his career and his next-to-last victory before he headed off to World War I.

His average speed was 89.3 mph., a record for Tacoma’s speedway.

“I tried to make an average time of 90 miles and was sorry I did not make it,” Rickenbacker told The Ledger after the race. “It would have helped the racing game in Tacoma, but the time made proved the track to be one of the fastest in the county.

“I was happy when I started and, of course, happier at the close.”

Randy McCarthy: 253-597-8277

This is one of a series of stories appearing during The News Tribune’s 125th year. Every Sunday we take a look at what happened during the same week sometime in the past 125 years. To suggest a week or an event for an upcoming story, e-mail your idea and any details to randy.mccarthy@thenewstribune.com. Eddie Rickenbacker

Born: Oct. 8, 1890, in Columbus, Ohio

Died: July 27, 1973, in Zurich, Switzerland

During World War I: Shot down 21 German planes and five observation balloons, the most of any American flier, as a member of the Hat-in-the-Ring squadron.

During World War II: Drifted in a rubber boat in the South Pacific for 24 days in 1942 after a plane crash on a government mission.

Racing career: 41 races, including four Indianapolis 500 starts; seven wins from 1913 to 1916

Business career: Co-founder of the Rickenbacker Motor Co., owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, president of Eastern Airlines