1918-19 Auto Racing Photo Album showing early racer Ralph De Palma's World Record Setting 150 MPH Straightaway in his Packard at Daytona Beach Florida

Disbound photo album with 122 photographs on 24 loose, double-sided, black album pages. Photos range in size generally from 3' x 2" inches to 5.5" x 3.5" inches. Includes paper clippings on Ralph De Palma's historic straightaway from a newspaper article as well as two clippings of the statistics and attributes of his vehicle. De Palma set the world straightaway record on Feburary 12, 1919, in a Packard race car that was outfitted with 260 horsepower Aviation Motor. Included is an action shot of De Palma blazing down the sandy shores of Daytona as well as him changing a tire and tuning up the vehicle. De Palma raced on that shoreline from February 12th (truncated) to the 17th, breaking records for the 1, 2, 3, 4 5, 10, 15, and 20 mile straightaways. A crowd of around 100 spectators huddle around De Palma, on what appears to be an uncharacteristically cold day for coastal Florida. The power of this engine was so much more advanced than the frame of the vehicle that one shot shows paneling on the side of the engine being held together by a common leather belt. At the time of his race, Packard was solely in competition with itself, holding all the records on straightaway and circular tracks for all distances from 1/4 mile to 616 miles. Several other types of vehicles displayed: several shots of a biplane, steamboats, a Ford Model-T, as well as the M1917 light tank. There are a couple photographs of a crowd gathered around a plane crash on the beach. The shores at Daytona Beach have been the arena for American racers and daredevils since at least the time of this series of photographs. The stock car racers who competed at "North Turn" on Daytona Beach drew such enthusiasm that the shores supplanted Belgium and France as the preferred location for racing. This culture centered around Daytona Beach would eventually lead to the formation of NASCAR after World War II. Several photographs of Daytona topograph in 1919, with palm-dotted beaches, the Everglades, marshes, bays, and groves of oranges and palmettos. All photographs are on loose pages which have experienced some chipping at edges, but the photos themselves are unaffected and overall very high quality and in very good condition. (Inventory #: 17529)