SOLVED! Name that race! - Ab Jenkins vs. Train, Utah Salt Flats

[Stephen M]

Time to play name that race! Identify the entrants and the nature of the contest.

[Otto Puzzell]

Did this race happen outside of the US?

[Stephen M]

Did this race happen outside of the US?

The race was entirely within the confines of the United States.

[Stephen M]

The driver of the car in the photo above held numerous records in his lifetime.

[Tifosi]

The driver of the car in the photo above held numerous records in his lifetime.

Cannonball Baker?



Dan

[Stephen M]

Not Baker. Good guess, though.

[Stephen M]

All race participants are shown in the photo above.

[Stephen M]

All race participants are shown in the photo above.

AND....all vehicles shown in the photo above were race participants......

[Motorace]

It ain't the Blue train Bentley, so how's about Barney Oldfield?

[Stephen M]

Not Oldfield.

[Stephen M]

Hmmm....I hadn't seen the pic before, but I have no idea how obscure this one is. So I'm just going to keep the hints coming every day or two.

Speaking of which, during the race a passenger in the car was tasked with throwing a bag of flour on the road at every railroad crossing. The routes weren't exactly parallel, so this marker let riders in the train would know if they were ahead or not.

[Stephen M]

Among numerous automotive records, the driver of the car also had some success in politics.

[Stephen M]

The car pictured is a Studebaker, but the driver made most of his hay with a Duesenberg.

[@re]

Could it be that the contest captured in the image is David Abbott 'Ab' Jenkins' attempt to race a train from New York to San Francisco in 1926? Jenkins and his relief driver, Ray L. Peck, made the trip in 86 hours 20 minutes - the train took 100 hours. Jenkins went on to set several 24-hour average speed records (with the Duesenberg 'Mormon Meteor'), of which the last one lasted from 1940 to 1990. Whether he then was satisfied I don't know... but he entered politics and became the mayor of Salt Lake City

[Stephen M]

Could it be that the contest captured in the image is David Abbott 'Ab' Jenkins' attempt to race a train from New York to San Francisco in 1926? Jenkins and his relief driver, Ray L. Peck, made the trip in 86 hours 20 minutes - the train took 100 hours. Jenkins went on to set several 24-hour average speed records (with the Duesenberg 'Mormon Meteor'), of which the last one lasted from 1940 to 1990. Whether he then was satisfied I don't know... but he entered politics and became the mayor of Salt Lake City

You're 90% of the way there...this is indeed Ab Jenkins, well done! But this photo was of a race a good bit shorter than NY-SanFran.

-Stephen M

[@re]

Let me try another one then - maybe the very race that introduced him to Bonneville in the first place, when a friend of his asked him to race his Studebaker against a train to promote the new highway through the salt flats? Apparently, Jenkins accepted the challenge - and beat the train, some sources say by five minutes, others by ten.

[Stephen M]

You've got it. Well done!

[@re]

That is some "high"way though...

[Otto Puzzell]

How the heck did the train passengers see the flour against the white salt?

[Allan L]

How the heck did the train passengers see the flour against the white salt?

Wholemeal flour, perhaps!

[Stephen M]

Good question. I was assuming the road surface at the crossing was paved with something significantly darker than the salt itself, but it doesn't look too dark in the photo.

Wholemeal flour as Allan suggested would be another explanation.