Vanderbilt Cup Races

The lead photo is probably a 1907 Allen Kingston.  I would say all the photos were taken at Readville, MA racetrack in 1907.  Because the fence in the background looks the same in all photos. The last photo is Walter Christie in his 1907 Christie Grand Prix car.  He practiced on September 1 for the race, which was to be held Labor Day.  The races were rained out and held Sept.14.  Christie did not return for that date, as he was racing in Pittsburg, where he crashed and broke his wrist.  “The Story of the Readville RaceTrack” was written by Walter E. Barrett Jr. in 1998, I think.  He sent me a copy in 2007.  I do not have the Boston Post results from the Sept. 14, 1907 race, perhaps the majority of these photos are from that event. An Allen Kingston appeared at the June, 1908 Readville race.  The Boston Post says Ralph DePalma was driving the Allen Kingston, but that photo doesn’t look like him. So I guess all these photos are from September, 1907.

There is no doubt for me that at least three of the pictures were taken during the Readville track races in June 1909. In the Detroit Public Library similar pictures can be found of the Allen-Kingston, with only A-K on the radiator, as well as of the Fiat, with only FIAT on the radiator, with Ralph DePalma at the wheel. And also the Renault with the nr.5 attached in a rather improvised way, driven by Charles Basle. All DPL photos were taken at the start/finish side of the track, but the mystery photos were taken on the other side. I have only one photo to prove that, taken during the Readville races the year before (published in The Automobile, June 25, 1908 on p.873): on this photo the light coloured fence can be seen in the far, and zooming in you can just see the poles sticking slightly out above the fence.
Two drivers raced Allen-Kingston cars during this race, Hugh Hughes and C.A. Glenworth, but comparing with other photos this driver seems to be Hughes.
One mystery remains however and that is the 1907 Christie on the last photo. In the reports of the 1909 races this car was never mentioned, but the car is clearly photographed at the same location as the other photographs. The only solution I can think of is that the photo was taken at the Readville races a year before, when Morton Seymour drove a Christie at this track.
Ralph DePalma was the winner of the 1912 and 1914 editions of the Vanderbilt Cup races. Charles Basle competed in the 1910 edition with a Marion. Hugh Hughes drove a Mercer in the 1911 and 1912 editions and a Fiat-Pope-Hartford named Ono in 1915. Joe Seymour drove a Thomas in the 1908 edition and an Isotta-Fraschini in 1909.

The fence photo and the race report in Motor Age.

This group of photos has been a challenge.
The best that I have is the main mystery photo is a 1908 Allen-Kingston racer driven by Arthur L. Cambell. A photo on Pinterest captions the photo as 1908. However, after browsing Detroit library photos, I’m leaning towards this being the 1909 races held at the Readville Racetrack in Boston Mass.
The 3 other cars are the #5 Renault, FIAT and the 1907 100hp V-4 Christie racer.

The connection to the Vanderbilt Cup Races is Hugh Hughes driving the #35 1908 Allen-Kingston in the 1908 Meadowbrook Sweepstakes, a photo of which is below.
Also below is an image of the #5 Renault from the 1909 Readville races which is a match to the above photo in the way the number is affixed to the car. I believe the FIAT was driven by Ralph DePalma also at the 1909 Readville races. It certainly looks like his usual driving posture. Included is a photo of DePalma crossing the finish line

Two more Detroit Library photos of DePalma’s FIAT leading the #5 Renault in the 1909 Readville races and a better view of DePalms’s FIAT crossing the finish line.

Howard, The manufacturer is the Allen-Kingston Co., model C or H from 1908.      AK won the Meadow Brook Sweepstakes class of the 1908 VCR with Hugh Hughes at the wheel.                                                                            The mystery photo was taken at the Briarcliffe Trophy Race in the Spring of 1908 in Westchester, NY with Ralph DePalma at the wheel.                                    Believe the Simone Museum has an Allen-Kingston from that era.

Arijan Bos-
In the first photo you posted with the AK crossing he line, there was 2 minor details that cast a little doubt in my mind when I came across it also in the Detroit archives.
First, was a lack of a riding mechanician, and second was a lack of the front fender supports which we’re both present in the top mystery photo.

Great job identifying the mystery photo!  Guess my initial guess that the AK was for Art Kleiner wouldn’t have been correct!

This is a tough one.  Most of the photos appear to be taken at the same spot on the track, same fence in the background.  However, that is the 1907 Christie GP car in the photo, not the same configuration as it appeared in 1908.  I am pretty sure the original Christie bodywork and radiator are visible in the photo.  On June 5, 1908 there was a straightaway speed trial held on Long Island, on Hillside Ave.  The Christie had been in an accident and the radiator and bodywork were removed/destroyed. Morton Seymour was driving, I believe.  Morton Seymour also drove another Christie at this time, a Christie raceabout or speedster. More like a street car with Christie’s transverse 4 cylinder engine. But if the big 1907 Christie GP car was back at Readville by June 25, 1908, it would have looked like the last photo below.

Hi Greg O.,
You’re correct about the ‘missing’ mechanician in some of the photos and I had noticed that too. However in a photo at the start of one of the races you do see an AK-driver with mechanician (see below). I didn’t analyze all races, so I don’t know the reason for this, but it could be that the longer distances were raced with a mechanician and the shorter one’s without. Moreover there were two AK-racers at Readville, so possibly that explains the differences between the cars.

This photo, taken at Briarcliff manor, NY on April 24th, 1908, was what became of the first Allen-Kingston racer during a pre-race accident. Driver, and Chief engineer for A-K, Albert Campbell, was racing with Ralph DePalma as mechanician when the car hit the end of a log that flew up into the radiator and caused the car to pole vault into the water below. Both survived, although Campbell could not drive in that race due to injuries. A-K sent a second racer and DePalma drove in the event.

Photo from Joel Finn’s 2012 book, The 1912 Milwaukee races.