Kincaid Wins Prest-O-Lite 100

The below attachment contains an article which orginally appeared in the May 28, 1910 Indianapolis Sun. The article covers the first day of racing at the May 1910 race meet at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and focuses on the day's feature event, the Prest-O-Lite 100. These contests were part of the May 1910 weekend that included "national championships," a newly-announced distinction by the American Automobile Association (AAA) for select race meets. Car manufacturers were keen to make a great showing. Check out another article that provides an additional summary of the race events for the day that was published in the Indianapolis Star on the same day.
 
This article was written by Joe Kelly who did an excellent job of summarizing the Prest-O-Lite contest. The event boiled down to a war of attrition and National Motor Vehicle Company's emerging star, 23-year-old Tom Kincaid emerged victorious. Second was another National racer entrusted to Charlie Merz who was making a comeback from his horrific accident the previous August at the Speedway. That mishap claimed the lives of three people: two spectators and Merz' riding mechanic. Leigh Lynch, Jackson, finished third with Marmon teammates Joe Dawson and Ray Harroun following. Kincaid was awarded both a trophy and a gold medal for his victory while Merz was presented a silver medal.
 
Incredibly, there were only seven starters which may have been at least partially the result of AAA officials disqualifying some of the numerous Buick entries for failing to comply with their rulebook. This is referenced late in Kelly's report, saying that one of the day's events had to be cancelled because so many cars were ruled ineligible for the Class B competition.  
 
Kelly underscores that Kincaid's time was a new record for distance at 1 hour, 20 minutes, 42.12 seconds. This compared with Louis Chevrolet's record of 1:24:8.7 established at the two-mile Atlanta speedway weeks earlier.
 
Johnny Aitken led early and set a new 10 mile American track record at eight minutes, 8.36 seconds. Meanwhile, Frank Fox and his riding mechanic "Fuller" survived an accident when his Pope-Hartford busted a steering gear and ran off the track into the infeld.
 
Harroun took the lead from Aitken and held it through the 30th mile. At that point his Marmon broke a valve and by that time his teammate Joe Dawson had worked his way into second. Dawson inherited the lead as Aitken soon retired with transmission trouble. Dawson's engine then began to misfire and Kincaid was at last in the lead. His drive was not without adversity, though, as on the 23rd one of his rear tire exploded as he passed the grandstand. In other reports the flapping tread slapped one of his arms stunning it to temporary uselessness. With the assistance of his riding mechainc - who I believe, but the article does not confirm was Don Herr - the two men were able to slow the car within 100 yards. Interestingly, there is no further discussion of the Prest-O-Lite race.
 
The article reports that attendance for the day's races was 10,000. The first event of the day was a time trial and Caleb Bragg recorded the best time of 39.6 seconds with his Fiat. Louis Chevrolet prevailed in event 3, topping Cole driver Bill Endicott. Lee Frayer steered his Firestone-Columbus to third. The fourth event ended in a virtual dead heat with Marmon teammates Harroun and Dawson neck-and-neck. Kincaid won event five, a five-mile contest where Dawson finished second. Aitken won event six which was composed of just three Nationals when Barney Oldfield in the Knox broke his steering mechanism on the warm-up lap. Tousey won for National in a handicap race. An amateur race with but two starters - Tousey and Art Greiner saw the latter win with his private National. Bob Burman took event 9 with Fiat driver Caleb Bragg second.