Story of the Running of the Grand Prix – Motor Age – 10 October 1912

This second reort in Motor Age covers the Grand Prize race in lap-by-lap modus, just as has been done for the Vanderbilt Cup race a week earlier.
Caleb Bragg first and Ralph DePalma second.

With permission of hathitrust hathitrust.org == Text and fotos compiled by motorracinghistory motorracinghistory.com
MOTOR AGE Vol. XXII, No.15, October 10, 1912, page 8 – 11

Story of the Running of the Grand Prix

By L. V. Spencer

   THE grand prix, which is an international event, and which is run under the sanction of the Automobile Club of America and not under the rules of the American Automobile Association, took place on Saturday before a crowd which was well over 100,000 strong, according to the official figures. Fully 10,000 people, which vast assemblage completely filled the immense grandstand, witnessed the finish of Caleb Bragg in his Fiat, who crossed the line, winner of the fourth annual race, averaging 69.3 miles an hour for the distance of about 410 miles, or fifty-two laps.
   On the fifty-first round, Bragg was well ahead of de Palma who was running second, and who surely would have come in second, had he not met with accident almost on the eve of the finish. At the end of the fifty-first lap, Bragg was leading de Palma by 2 minutes 36 seconds, yet the latter determined to cut this down so that the balance would be on the other side of the ledger, if possible. On his fifty-first round, de Palma received instructions from the pit to speed up. Desperate, he drove like mad, taking the turns at a fearful clip. The crowd was all excitement, for there was a chance that the young Italian would win.

De Palma is Ditched
   But just before Bragg arrived at the tape, the report came in without details that de Palma was in the ditch. None of those who heard the report was surprised, for all knew that de Palma was going at a fearful rate. The announcement was not given out to the crowd for fear of a stampede, and none suspected that an accident had happened until after Bragg had crossed the line the winner, running slowly. He stopped at the line and conversed with Starter Wagner, telling him all he knew of the accident. Yet the crowd did not suspect for several seconds; when it dawned upon them, cries of „Where is de Palma?“ „What has become of de Palma?“ arose from the crowd. Still the news was kept quiet, and delivered only to the press stand, and was not given out until the race was over.
   At station 11, which is on the North Fond Du Lac road, de Palma attempted to pass Bragg, but did not allow enough room to clear the other car, hitting the big Fiat with sufficient force to overturn his speeding Mercedes, throwing him and his mechanician Tom Alley out of the car. Their injuries, at first thought to be serious, did not prove so grave.
   Throughout the long run of 410 miles there was plenty of excitement for the big crowd. There was an imposing line up of high-powered cars at the start. Out of the fourteen entries, there were twelve starters. One of those missing was Bruce-Brown, while the other was Mulford, whose Knox was not in shape for the race. Barney Oldfield was also on hand, having succeeded in getting a car-a Fiat-at the last minute.

Start of Grand Prix
   Bob Burman, in Benz 31, was the first to get away, followed by Fontaine in a Lozier. Fontaine is a Milwaukee pilot, and he drove the same car which Nelson, its owner and entrant, drove in the Vanderbilt cup race of Wednesday. Next came Teddy Tetzlaff, demon driver of them all, at the wheel of Fiat 33. He was trailed by Hughie Hughes in the sturdy Mercer. The unlucky de Palma was off 30 seconds later in his Mercedes 35. Spencer Wishart, who drove a Mercer in the Pabst race of Friday, was in command of another Mercedes, No. 36. Clark was next off in Mercedes 39. Berg- doll, at the wheel of the immense Benz 40 followed. After him was Bragg, Fiat 41, who had withdrawn from the race following Bruce-Brown’s death, but who was persuaded at the last minute to compete. Benz 42, which was scheduled to be driven by Joe Dawson, winner at Indianapolis in June, was sent away by Horan instead. Gil Anderson in the Stutz, which looked small beside the immense foreign machines, got the word next, and last Oldfield in Fiat 44.

Tetzlaff in Lead
   Tetzlaff took the lead in the first lap, with Bragg second and Bergdoll third. Wishart and de Palma were in fourth and fifth places, respectively, while the others came around in the following order: Burman, Hughes, Horan, Anderson, Fontaine, Clark and Oldfield. The latter would no doubt have shown up better on this first circuit had he not been delayed by tire trouble. This was the first stop at the pits.
   Returning to the race, the second lap saw only two shiftings of positions among the cars in the rear positions. Wishart took Bergdoll’s place in third position, while Hughes overtook Burman, forcing the latter into seventh position and putting Hughes in sixth. All this time Tetzlaff was driving in his terrific, slam-bang style, much the same as he did in the Vanderbilt race of Wednesday. After completing his second lap, Burman stopped at the pit with engine trouble, the same trouble, by the way, which delayed the start of the race for 10 minutes. In his third lap, Burman was permanently out of the race, his Benz having succumbed to a broken piston.

Racers Shift Positions
   Burman out, Anderson came from ninth into seventh place, Hughes, who had to stop at his pit on his third lap to replace a spark plug, went back to last place at the end of the third. The shift brought Clark up to tenth, Oldfield having passed him and coming into the ninth place. Fontaine was running now in eighth place, while Horan became sixth. The leaders retained the same positions which they had held during the second lap.
   The third was Wishart’s last lap; in the fourth his motor was disabled with a broken crankshaft, a break which presages quick repair. Bergdoll now became third, while de Palma moved up to fourth place. Horan succeeded to fifth place, Anderson to sixth, Fountaine to seventh, Oldfield to eighth, Clark to ninth and Hughes to tenth. Tetzlaff, way in the lead, was reeling off the miles at a lively clip. There seemed to be no stopping him. clip with Bragg a good second.
   The fifth lap saw no changes in the positions of the leaders, the only difference in the ten contenders being that both Anderson and Fountaine passed Horan. The Stutz car came into Horan’s old position at fifth, while the Lozier came up to sixth place.
   In the sixth lap, Clark passed Oldfield, who was obliged to stop at his pit to replace a right rear tire. The veteran driver made quick work of the change, but he did not regain his lost position until the ninth lap. There was no other change in the line-up in the sixth lap, Tetzlaff still leading by a good margin and hotly pursued by Bragg, Bergdoll and de Palma.

De Palma Moves Up
   It was in the seventh lap that de Palma snatched third place from Bergdoll, who stopped for fuel and an extra supply of tires to replace those used on the back stretch. This wait put Bergdoll back into sixth place, Fountaine and Anderson passing him as well as de Palma.
   The eighth lap brought out no differences in the line-up, while in the ninth, the only position change was in Oldfield’s taking eighth position from Clark. In this lap Fountaine went through the straw bales on the Fond du Lac road turn, but he was soon on the road again, no one having been hurt. The tenth saw no change except that Bergdoll, in the Benz, passed Fountaine.
   In the eleventh, Tetzlaff made his first stop at the pit, thus giving his lead to Bragg, who was running nicely and whose car had performed so far without a hitch. Tetzlaff changed a right rear tire and was soon away again in pursuit of Bragg. In this lap, Horan, who had been running seventh, passed Anderson, Bergdoll and Fountain, and took fourth position momentarily, only to drop back to his old standing again on the following round. The Stutz car then took fifth place, Bergdoll sixth, and Fountaine seventh.
   All this time de Palma was running third, and Anderson, except for the thirteenth lap when he was momentarily nosed out by Bergdoll, was in fourth position.
In the fourteenth lap Bergdoll blew a tire on the back stretch at station 4 and the delay put the Benz entry into seventh position, both Oldfield and Fountain passing it. Hughes was still worrying along in last place.
   The fourteenth lap was Tetzlaff’s fastest, and also the fastest lap ever covered over the Wauwatosa course, he making the circuit in 6 minutes 7 seconds, or at the average speed of 77.4 miles an hour. This hitting it up gave Teddy the lead again, which he held through the next lap, Bragg running consistently and but a few seconds behind. On lap seventeen, Tetzlaff made a pit stop which cost him 2 minutes 22 seconds and putting Bragg in the lead.
   At the end of the seventeenth lap, the cars stood Bragg, Tetzlaff, de Palma, Anderson, Bergdoll, Fountaine, Oldfield, Clark, Horan. The Mercer car 34, Hughie Hughes, went out for good in this lap, leaving only nine cars still running. Hughes‘ car was disabled by a broken gasoline line. Two laps previous to his withdrawal, Hughes‘ car threw a wheel at station 7, but the driver controlled the car, keeping it on the road. Another was substituted, his car being equipped with the wire type.

Bragg Loses Lead
   Through the twentieth lap, nothing of note took place, although on the next round Bragg lost his lead, which he had held from the seventeenth lap. He was obliged to stop at his pit for gasoline, and he changed both rear tires at the same time, losing in all 2 minutes. De Palma and Tetzlaff were both so close that they passed Bragg while he was stopped.
   Tetzlaff also was forced to change a rear tire, so that, in the twenty-second circuit, de Palma was leading, with Tetzlaff second and Bragg still third. De Palma, now leading, had averaged 72 miles an hour for twenty-two laps.
  De Palma retained the lead through the twenty-fourth lap with Tetzlaff second. Bragg third, Bergdoll fourth, Anderson fifth, Oldfield sixth, Clark seventh, and Horan eighth. But in the next lap, which was the twenty-fifth, Tetzlaff succeeded in nosing de Palma out of first position.
   More delay at the pit on the twenty sixth lap allowed Bragg to take second position from de Palma, while Tetzlaff was still in the lead.
   In the thirty-first lap it was seen that still running. something was wrong with Tetzlaff, who, since he had regained the premier position, had been going at a lively pace. Finally, the car was seen coming down the track at a slow pace and it was found that Tetzlaff was permanently out of the race with a broken radius rod. With Tetzlaff’s withdrawal, seven cars remained in the struggle, the Lozier having gone out in the twenty-second lap with a sprung steering-knuckle.
   With Tetzlaff out, Bragg came into first place again, de Palma second, Bergdoll third, Anderson fourth, Oldfield fifth, Clark sixth, and Horan seventh. The rest of the race for first place was simply a struggle between Bragg and de Palma.