The Race

Leinster Leader, Saturday 27 June 1903 - Page 8.

HOW THE RACE WILL BE RUN.
It is important to note that the "Race" is not really what the word implies. It is (now) purely a "time" test - a case of who will cover the course in the smallest number of minutes, not who will finish first. The car that finishes first may as a matter of fact be second or third in the order of winning.
It was formerly intended that the "first past the post" should have the Cup. But the Paris-Madrid horrors put an end to this perilous plan. This is how the contest will work out now:- The English holder of the Cup, Mr. Edge, will start first at 7 a.m. The other cars will start at intervals of seven minutes respectively. "Eleven sevens are 77," and 77 minutes after 7 o'clock is exactly 17 minutes past 8. At this hour the Race will be in full swing. In the controls (the stretches between two sets of poles connected across the road by limewash marks), the cars will have to slow down. They will slacken speed on reaching the "in" limewash mark and they will stop altogether at the "out" limewash mark further on. The time lost in the controls will be credited to each competitor, and subtracted from the total time taken by him to cover the entire distance from the Ballyshannon start to the Ballyshannon finish. Watches specially made and electrical apparati. in the hands of skilled judges, will measure all times to a nicety. The competitor who has on comparison of all the figures of all the cars the lowest time (exclusive of the delay in the controls) will win the Cup.
The Race will then be a series of rushes or spurts, the complete distance of the 371 miles being punctuated by the controls. As no car will be permitted to leave a control till the one preceding it is seven minutes ahead, the chances of "dead heat" competition becomes practically nil. The judgement and the delicacy of manipulation entailed by the stopping and restarting will severely test the nerve of the motorist. He will not merely have to keep a keen outlook and a judgement "on the pounce" for dangerous curves, corners and bridges, but he will have to cautiously calculate the points at which he might "let go" his motor at maximum speed with the greatest ultimate advantage.
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