SET FASTER PACE AT THE SPEEDWAY

Hundred Miles an Hour for Single Laps Made Several Times Yesterday.

SURPRISE TO OFFICIALS

Believe Chances Good for Beating Chicago Time in Races Saturday.

Not a single one of the practice events at the speedway yesterday afternoon was run in less than ninety miles an hour average, and a speed of 100 miles an hour for single laps was attained several times. There were no elimination trials yesterday, but most of the drivers were on the track a large part of the afternoon, learning the track and putting their motors in prime condition for the 300 mile derby on Saturday.

It is noticeable that, as the drivers become more familiar with the speedway, through daily practice, the speed they are able to attain increases. During the elimiation trials the average for all cars was less than ninety miles an hour. Yesterday afternoon there was not a car on the track that did not make a sustained speed of above that figure.

Fast Time Assured.

Yesterday's trials are more pleasing to speedway officials than any that heretofore have been held. These officials say it was demonstrated yesterday that the race Saturday will be a fast one. It would not be surprising to them if the time of the Chicago speedway 500 mile race is eclipsed, because larger motors are allowed here than could be entered in the Chicago event.

Ralph DePalma in his abbreviated white Stutz, and Eddie O'Donnell in his Duesenberg were the featured drivers of the afternoon. DePalma started out to do fifty miles, but had to quit at the end of forty-eight because a valve cap broke. He traveled that forty-eight miles at an average speed of 98.70 miles an hour, and the first twenty-five miles he made in 15:16, or at the rate of 99.44 miles an hour.

O'Donnell Goes Some.

For thirty-six of DePalma's forty-eight laps, O'Donnell punded along behind the Stutz, keeping just an even two car lengths behind it the entire distance. The timing machine caught O'Donnell's speed for eleven miles of this trip at a flat 100 miles an hour, and later he drove a 36 second lap in a ten mile trial gainst time. His slowest lap in this ten miles was :37.5, or at the rate of 95.74 miles an hour.

Shrunk, in a White Six, and Cooper, in a Sebring, each developed speed that surprised track officials and drivers. The White did ten miles in :39.20 laps at the rate of nearly ninety-two miles an hour, and the Sebring maintained an average of 97.29 miles an hour for twenty-seven miles. In his third trial of the afternoon O'Donnell drove ten miles at an average of 94.50 miles an hour, doing one 100 mile an hour lap.

Tom Alley, in an Ogren, was another of the drivers who gave a good account of himself yesterday. The Ogren's five miles was done at a speed of 97.82 miles an hour.

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