Two big automobiles stood side by side, their motors rumbling, their front wheels on the starting-line of the Indianapolis speedway. At the flash of the signal the two roared off in a cloud of blue exhaust, the drivers handling their cars carefully, expertly, in anticipation of the 24-hour grind that lay ahead of them.
The cars were an American-built Stutz, owned by F. E. Moskovics, president of the Stutz Motor Car Co., and a French-made Hispano-Suiza, owned by Charles T. Weymann, famed motor car body designer and sportsman. Both were stock cars. The race was the result of an argument between Mr. Moskovics and Mr. Weymann, each backing his belief with a $25,000 wager.
Five hours and 20 minutes after the start, the Stutz coasted into the repair pits, where mechanics swarmed over it like ants on a picnic cake. The foreign car kept droning on its way. Soon the Stutz mechanics shook their heads; their pet had broken a connecting rod.
Well in the lead now, the French car slackened its pace slightly. Twelve hours later, the exhausted mechanics pronounced the task hopeless; the Hispano was flagged down to receive the news that the Stutz had been forced to withdraw. The foreign invader had traveled 1,357½ miles in 17 hours, 21 minutes, maintaining an average speed of 70.14 miles per hour. The old stock car record, made last October at Atlantic City by a Studebaker, of 1,814.96 miles in 24 hours, with an average of 75.6 miles per hour, remained unbroken.