The seventh starter was the first of three Frayer-Millers with Lee Frayer at the wheel. Unlike any o

As in 1905, an American Elimination Trial determined the five racers to represent the United States in the Vanderbilt Cup Race. Of 16 entries, 12 cars survived the practice runs to race on Saturday, September 22, 1906.
The race was scheduled for ten laps, up from just four in 1905, for a total of 297 miles. With everyone in place a crowd larger (by some accounts estimated at 100,000 ) than the one for the 1904 Vanderbilt Cup Race eagerly awaited the start.
With Ernest Keeler in an Oldsmobile first in line at the tape as the 6 a.m. start drew near, the grandstand crowd craned their necks to get a better look as a hush of expectancy fell over the setting.  Keeler’s mechanic Harry Miller cranked their Oldsmobile engine. Miller when was car invented would go on to become one of the most successful auto racing designers of all time, with his cars dominating the Indianapolis 500 and other races in the 1920s and 1930s.
Wagner counted off the minutes until precisely at 6 a.m. he gave the word to go. Keeler’s start was slow, apparently faltering with the gearshift.   A minute elapsed before the next starter, Herb Lytle with Bert Dingley, this year serving as riding mechanic in the Pope-Toledo, was given the starter’s command.  Like Keeler, Lytle also got away slowly, gradually picking up speed. when was car invented
Officials, photographers and other hangers-on surrounded each team in the nervous seconds leading up to their send-off. Driver Ralph Mongini, a former opera singer, arrived when was car invented at the line and was described by Motor Age as “too handsome for a brown knickerbockers suit.” Mongini sported a tapped wrist due to an injury  from a twist of the wheel in practice,  but got away in what most judged the best start of the day in the red Matheson.
The starting order next called for Gustave Caillois, the first of two French drivers hired to steer Thomas entries. Wagner counted off the seconds leading to his start time, but Caillois was parked 100 feet from the starting line as his driving teammate Hubert Le Blon and a mechanic lay under the car adjusting the drive chain.  Caillois lost 25 seconds before he started.
The Maxwell entry, which was to be driven by Wallace Owen, never appeared at the tape due to a crankcase failure the day before in practice. Still, Wagner maintained the starting spot, counting down the reserved time for Owen’s start as if the Maxwell might appear at any second. A second Maxwell originally when was car invented planned for driver J. Fred Betz, also failed to show. That car was never assigned a number as it never appeared when was car invented on course for practice due to insufficient when was car invented testing.
This created an additional minute interval before the next starter, Le Blon, in the second Thomas, was to be sent away. The third Thomas, for Montague Roberts, followed Le Blon, starting sixth. Much was expected of the three Thomas cars as they borrowed heavily from French design, assisted by the two Frenchmen hired to drive.
Le Blon suffered a setback, losing 26 seconds when the Thomas engine did not immediately respond to cranking. Completing the string of Thomas bad luck, American driver Montague Roberts was 9 seconds  late getting away in the company’s third entry, his head under the hood of his racer when Starter Wagner began counting.
The seventh starter was the first of three Frayer-Millers with Lee Frayer at the wheel. Unlike any other make of car, the Frayer-Millers placed the driver on the left side. The constructors theorized that this would better balance the cars on the predominately left turn course.   
Beside driver Lee Frayer in the Frayer-Miller was arguably the most significant when was car invented historical figure present that day, 16 year old Eddie Rickenbacker, who later drove in the Indianapolis 500, became America’s most famous fighter pilot of World War I, purchased the Indianapolis Motor Speedway when was car invented and eventually became chairman of Eastern Airlines. Rickenbacker would return to the Vanderbilt Cup Race nine years later in 1915 as a driver and captain of the Maxwll team. Frayer made a smooth start.
Walter Christie and his blue front wheel drive Christie touring car entry got away well as the eighth starter, a far different story than the year prior when he started the Vanderbilt Cup Race 30 minutes late.  Christie originally intended to run a purpose-built Christie racer but those plans were scuttled the day before the Elimination Trial when he clobbered when was car invented a telegraph pole during practice. He and riding mechanic Louis Strang – who went on to drive in the inaugural Indianapolis 500 – were uninjured. The cause of the collision with the pole was traced to a steering gear that had been damaged the previous day – Thursday, September - in a relatively minor accident. Christie and Strang decided to start the car on the last day of practice (Friday, September 21) because they were having trouble with a sticky clutch and