Grand Prix Honors Captured by Bragg – Motor Age – 10 October 1912

In this Motor Age issue a week later, three separate short reports were published on the 1912 American Grand Prize race. The Wednesday Grand Prize race was won by Caleb Bragg in a Fiat with an average of just under 70 mph. The two other small races that were organised by the Milwaukee Automobile Dealers Assiciation, the Pabst cup and the Wisconsin cup, lacked public interest.

With permission of hathitrust hathitrust.org == Text and fotos compiled by motorracinghistory motorracinghistory.com
MOTOR AGE Vol. XXII, No.15, October 10, 1912, page 5 – 7

Grand Prix Honors Captured by Bragg

Fiat Driver Leads 41 and Benz and Stutz in American Classic at ci Milwaukee – Winning Average, 69.3 Miles per Hour – Masons Win in Both Pabst and Wisconsin Challenge Races- Crowd on Saturday Numbers 100,000 – De Palma Injured
By C. G. Sinsabaugh

MILWAUKEE, WIS, Oct. 6 – Running off the Vanderbilt last Wednesday, which returned Ralph de Palma in the Mercedes as winner, the Milwaukee Automobile Dealers‘ Association brought it’s meet to a successful completion yesterday afternoon when the grand prix was run and won by Caleb Bragg in a Fiat at an average of 69.3 miles per hour. The two small-car races on Thursday were lacking in interest. Mortimer Roberts in a Mason winning the Pabst and Harry Endicott in a Mason taking the Wisconsin cup.
   They had to coax Bragg to drive in the grand prix. On Wednesday he had  announced his withdrawal from the classic out of respect to his friend, the late David Bruce-Brown, who was killed in practice Tuesday, but yesterday morning he could not resist the fascination of the big race and the entreaties of his team mates and so he was one of the twelve who lined up for the fourth running of the Automobile Club of America’s gold cup race at approximately 410 miles.

   Cold type fails when it comes to describing the grand prix finish. The tables show that Bragg had 15 minutes 24 seconds over the second car, the Benz driven by Bergdoll; but they do not show how close Ralph de Palma, winner this year of the two big races at Elgin and the Vanderbilt cup, came to snatching away from Bragg the international honors that now are his. Neither do they tell of how this same de Palma flirted with death and how lucky he was that his fate was not similar to that which robbed the motor world of Bruce-Brown. As a result of the daring attempt which he made to add to his laurel wreath, de Palma now is in the Trinity hospital in this city, suffering from abdominal injuries which will confine him to his bed for a week or more. On the final lap de Palma ran into Bragg from the rear, his Mercedes turned over, throwing out both driver and mechanician, and poor de Palma saw even his chances of getting second go glimmering much as they went at Indianapolis in the 500-mile race.

   With de Palma eliminated in this sensational manner, Bergdoll in the Benz ran into second place after a hot finish with Anderson in the Stutz, whom he beat by 31 seconds for the position, while Barney Oldfield, in a Fiat, was fourth, 4 minutes 32 seconds back of Anderson. Clark in a Mercedes and Burman driving Horan’s Eenz were still running when the race was called off, because of the crew refusing to be held in check any longer. Twelve cars in all started in the race, but half of them were eliminated for one reason or another.
   But it was the Bragg-de Palma finish that stirred the crowd of 150,000 to a frenzy and the accident at the eleventh hour undoubtedly robbed the motoring public of the greatest finish that ever had been put up in a grand prix race. Bragg always had been a factor in the race, never being worse than third and having led the field from the thirty-first lap when Tetzlaff went to the side lines for keeps.
De Palma had been plugging grimly, fifth third, then second and finally leading in and sixth at the start, then going up to the twenty-second, twenty-third and twenty-fourth laps; then dropping to third for four laps when Tetzlaff and Bragg were battling ahead of them and finally becoming runner-up to Bragg when Tetzlaff went out.

   With four laps to go, de Palma was 4 minutes 19 seconds to the bad. He made a lap in 6:28 to Bragg’s 7:21 and cut the margin to 3 minutes 26 seconds. The fiftieth lap was made in 6:36 by de Palma and 7:26 by Bragg and the gap was reduced to 2 minutes 36 seconds when Starter Wagner waved his green flag for both of them. De Palma was chasing his rival with deadly intensity and upon receiving a signal from his pit to „beat it'“ he stepped on the throttle and had the accelerator flat with the boards when he swung into the North Fond du Lac road. He crept up on the Fiat with great leaps and bounds and at station 11 he had caught his rival. But it was necessary for him to do more than catch him – he had to pass and beat him to the tape by the margin that Bragg had over him at the start.

Bragg 41.
   Then came the thriller that spoiled the finish. De Palma was trying to pass and some say that just as he crept up to the rear wheel of the Fiat Bragg swung over a trifle and the gray Mercedes ran into the rear of the red car.
   The Bragg-de Palma battle was the real feature of the race, although Tetzlaff’s efforts earlier in the contest stirred the crowd to enthusiasm. Outside of these two incidents, the running of the Stutz, which finished third, was commendable.
   A crowd estimated at 100,000 saw the race, but at that the promoters lost money -probably $25,000. It is admitted a mistake was made in not dividing with the. farmers as was done at Elgin, which resulted in the property owners letting in thousands who did not pay any admission fee. At that, Milwaukee wants to run both the classics next year.