The first public event on the new Des Moines speedway brought 7,000 interested spectators to witness the smashing of one world's record, death defying aerial feats by a daring aviator and a motorcycle race at an 83-mile clip.
The program planned for the day by the management was too long for the hours of daylight and the 100-mile exhibition of Eddie O'Donnell was cut to a ten-mile burst of speed.
Barney Oldfield, the veteran racer, lowered a world's record when he negotiated five miles at a speed of about 100 miles an hour, completing the distance in 3:01 4-5.
Threatening skies and reported bad roads did not interfere greatly with the attendance. The thorofare to the speedway gate was made passable and hundreds of automobiles entered the grounds.
Oldfield was given an ovation as he appeared on the track at 2:30 o'clock in his Christie racer. He made a preliminary run twice around the circuit to test the new track. He averaged 103 miles an hour in the trial run and was wildly cheered as he whizzed past the grandstand for the first time.
The sensational flying of Thompson, the aviator, was easily the feature of the day. After performing thrilling dips, loop the loops and other aerial acrobatic turns, the aviator gave a clever exhibition of bomb dropping. By spirals he attained a height of about 2,000 feet from which he dropped unexplosive bombs on a scenic fort set in the middle of the field. Finally the fort, after it had replied with a dozen "smoke bombs," none of which came close to the aeroplane, was "blowed up," ostensibly by one of the aviator's bombs.
Thompson made three flights. Each time he alighted he was given a round of rousing applause by his thrilled audience.
The race between Oldfield in a Fiat and the aviator was exciting. The large crowd wildly cheered the two men as they speeded along the stretch past the grandstand, the flying machine hovering over the speeding automobile. No record of the time made in this two mile event was kept.
Eddie O'Donnell was scheduled for a 100-mile run gainst time in his Duesenberg racer. It was so late, however, when this event in the lengthy program was reached that the distance was shortened to ten miles. O'Donnell completed the distance in 6:36, at a rate of speed of nearly ninety-two miles an hour.
The motorcycle races while interesting were not especially exciting. The winners of the two-mile and three-mile events averaged a speed of eighty-three miles an hour.
Larry Fleckenstein, holder of the world's record, won the two-mile, and Hal Ward of Los Angeles was first in the three-mile race.
Among the drivers that will participate in the 300-mile race Saturday who have arrived in the city are: A.F. Scott, who will drive an Anderson special; Chandler and O'Donnell, Duesenbergs; Bob Burman, Peugot; Strunk, White Pilot, and Joe Cooper, Sebring.