9 AUTO RACES WILL BE HELD TODAY, H Whizz! Bang! Ne, children, this | is not an advertisement for your favorite monthly magazine—its only, | an announcement of the auto races .| which are to be held this afternoon at the Downing race track at 1:30 ; o'clock, j ; First on the progrom will be onea ./half mile time trials for place. Fol lowing these will come five 10 mile races with five drivers entered in each. These races are in the nature of elimination heats as only the win- ,| ner of each will be qualified to enter }}the 20 mile race which is the only | race of the day carrying prizes, and _|consequently the one around which .|the principle interest will be center- .| ed. ¢; The winner of the 20 mile contest t| will receive a cash prize of $250, sec~- | ond place will receive $100 and third - | Place $50. | There are several entries from De- 'catur and some Decatur men will be -| chosen @s starters and judges,TRACK ACCIDENT Grubbs Placed on Stand te Describe Downing Race Smashup | I. H. Grubbs, one of the victims when a racing automobile left the track during the auto races at| Downing track May 20, 1822, took | | the stand in circuit court yesterday afternoon in the 25,000 damage suit brought by Samuel C. Young of St.| Louis, another victim, against own-| ers of the land on which the track is} located, Anna Maude Ratin and) Poyntelle Downing, brother and sis- ter, are defendants, Testifying as a plaintiff's witness, Mr. Grubbs told of standing alony || the Bloomington road to watch the |, jraces, of seeing the cars speed) |arouna the dirt track at the rate of | $5 miles an hour and of seeing one car leave the track after locking wheels with another, | Awoke in Hospital | next thing I remember fs hw up two weeks later in De- catur and Macon County hospital,” he ended. Eugene Adolph was with him at he time and was on the stand when | court adjourned for the da: Poyn- telle Downing was one of the first || Witnesses put_on the stand to des-| cribe the location of the track. He|' ! was followed by F. L. Washburn, civil engineer, who had drawn a‘plat of the grounds and track. | Young was struck by one of the cars which left the track and ran wild through the crowd. When truck he was standing or walking ong the Bloomington road outside | ||the grounds. He was in court yes- y and offered mute evidence of njuries by the use of @ crutch and a cane, , Says Track Unsafe ? The plaintiff will attempt to show |; that the track on the day when the || necident occurred, was unsafe for avto racing. , Herrick & Herrick of Farmer City and Denz & Buckner of Decatur are |} representing the plaintiff, while Le- |: Forgee, Black and Sagnuels are coun- |’ |sel for’ the defendant. Atty. George |; 1 | Black is chief of counsel in the trial of the case.AUTO VICTIM O | STAND TODAY : : ’ ee r | Spectator Witnesses Give}, | Version of Accident |: | to Court : | Samuel ©. Young win take the |} t) morning and tell the coure and jury | ‘lof the injuries he sustained at’ the | * | Downing race track on Memorial day: |i nd of the manner in which |those injuries were received. He is .|the plaintiff in a suit for $25,000 damages against Mra. Anna Maude tin and Poyntelle Downing. own- ers of the land on which the track clis located, and he probably will be B the last witness for his side. | Witness after witness took the [stand for the plaintiff ‘Tuesday $| morning and described how two rav: sjing. cars locked wheels ns thoy skidded around the northwest curve, lone of them hurtling off the track into the crowd. Most of the witnesses || thus far have been non-paying spec- |< tators who, at the time of the acci- |; dent, were lined up along the Bloom- |} ke hh ington road, looking over = canvas [placed between the road and track ..|to obstruct the victon of all but those inside the grounds, Practically | »|all of them sald that, ip thelr judg y|ment, the track was notb wilt fo: | speed such as the racing cars made. | Another Vietim Testifies One other victim of the “stamped ing” car was on the stand late Tues #|day afternoon. ‘That was Carl Hate. | <|He turned. from the. canvas and | started to run a= he saw the racing tar leap the track and start for hint lhe testified, but the car overtook | him. He suffered an injured ankle [that kept him away from his work | | for two weeks =| Otier Spectator witnesses during | the day were Elmer Lyons, “Eldon s|Geiger. Rufus Peabody, | Eugene | Adolph, Roy Whitten and Pag! | Grubbs. ‘They all_ were outside the | grounds watching the races “like a |Rmall boy. watches a ballgame | d|through a knot-hole,” as Mr. Gelgur =| put ite | ¢ | "An attempt was made by the plain- | k | tiffs attorness to place Mrs. Lyds | Cloney of Elwin on the stand to tell of-an secident similar to the one of | « |isdzi whieh oceutreauduting the as | t.|bor day races of 1921. Such testi- | si| mony was ruled out by. the court when it was. shown that. the ent Daukmeatrise) toaneecae edt eae} n| raised ‘before tho races of May” 30, | 18 ‘The case will not go to the jur: much before evening, it was pre -|dicted Tuesday