From "The Horseless Age" Volume 18 October 3, 1906 Number 14

One mile drag, Marriot in Stanley 33 seconds. First
15 mile handicap, 15 HP Stanley 13 min 42 sec. Durbin First
Kilometer Marriot Stanley, 18 2/5th sec First
Mile flying, Marriot Stanley 28 1/5th
30 Mile Marriot Stanley, 34 min 18 2/5 sec.

I had never heard about the 15 or 30 mile races before. There was a 100 mile race won by Earp in a 100 hp Napier at 1 hr 15 min 40 2/5th sec.

Does anyone else know of any long distance races that steam cars were involved in, especially ones that they did well in?

I think that to the critics of a steamers range that 30 mile win by Marriot is one of the best results of the race. I wonder if it was the Rocket or a Vanderbuilt cup car?

Caleb Ramsby

The 15-mile race referenced was the "Fifteen Miles Price Handicap for American Touring Cars Fully Equipped" on Jan. 25, 1906, and it was won by Frank Durbin driving a Stanley Model H "Gentleman's Speedy Roadster".

The 30-mile race was the "Thirty Mile Championship for American-Built Cars" on Jan. 29, 1906, which was won by Fred Marriott. According to press reports and records of the day, Marriott's car in this race is listed as the 30 (or sometimes 50) HP "Stanley racer" which would have to be the LSR car (later nicknamed the "Rocket"). The Vanderbilt racers were not built until later in 1906, making their first appearence at the Readville races in Boston on May 30. The course for this race was 15 miles down the beach and back. The race is famous in Stanley lore because the start of the race was allegedly moved up to early morning without notifying the Stanley team. F.E. Stanley arose early, it is said, and noticed activity down on the beach; once he discovered the new race start time he ran to the chauffeurs' barracks behind the Ormond Garage, rousted Marriott and the rest of his crew out of bed and started to fire-up the racer. Marriott arrived at the starting line 5 minutes and 40 seconds after the other cars had left, and took off in pursuit. He caught and passed Ford's racer at the halfway point, and later caught Walter Christie who had stopped to plug a leaking radiator and get water at one of the beach hotels. Marriott stopped too, thinking the race was over, but got underway again after Christie pointed out that the finish was still several miles away. Marriott won easily - it's not clear if he made a water stop anywhere along the 30-mile route (it doesn't seem to have been prohibited) or if he was able to run the entire race on a single tankful of water taken on at the start.

There were a couple of other 15-mile races won by Stanleys - most of these were "steam-only" track races.

Merrick,

Thanks for the great story!

It must have been a wild time at the beack that year!

So, if my information is correct, the flying mile was on the 26th, this would be 3 days before the 30 mile race. I wonder if their embarasement resulted in their lack of informing the Stanleys that the race time had been changed and mabey even why it was changed?

In the Horseless Days artical it said that there was little excitement although many records were broken. I wonder if this was refering to the writers and gas men who were a little tiffed at the "freaks" performance?

Thanks also for the time line information about the Vanderbilt racers. Good to know.

A few more questions for everyone.

Does anyone know the weight, gearing and boiler pressure of the original Vanderbilt cars? Also, did the Vanderbilt cars use the same boiler/burner size and type(four venturi burner) as the beach car? Also, I had heard that they tricked out the engine by changing the valve motion(advance, cutoff position or lap?) of the 1907 engine. I had heard that the Vanderbilt engines and boiler were sort of a prototype for the K type cars, does anyone know if this is right?

Does anyone know if there were any Stanleys raced on the board tracks that were in great vouge a few years later? I seem to recall hearing about one that was run and beat the pants off of the competition, it was a special private car, mabey the two boiler mountain wagon that was used as a racer, striped down.

Thanks again.

Caleb Ramsby



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/02/2008 12:03AM by Caleb Ramsby.