[faksta]

II Race for Samokat magazine prize.

The second annual race for Samokat magazine prize took place on July, 23. As many of year 1900 events, the entries list was almost empty… Partly because of this, previous year Mazy’s winning time (2:43:38) remained unbeaten, ‘thanks’ to a violent contrary wind.
The first finished was Deschamps, who completed the distance in 2:53:30. Vadim Mihailov came second. As he told later, he could finish first, but hit a calf, that didn’t want to get out of the way, and bended his tricycle’s fork. Fomin on a four-wheeler spent 4:33:50 for 100 versts, and Barbais on Mors 6hp automobile finished in 3:57:20. To be mentioned, Barbais didn’t avoid accident with animal too by hitting a cow.

Narva-St.-Petersberg.

The next race, between Narva and St.-Petersberg, happened a week later - on July, 30. Should I say it didn’t see many entrants and visitors?
Among 3 tricycles entered by Mihailov, Deschamps and Stepanov, only one car was listed – Genrik’s two-seater 5hp Mors. As always, heavy four-wheeler looked pale compared to frisky tricycles, which was confirmed by results: the winner, Mihailov, spent just 4:11 for 140 versts, while Genrik needed almost 12 hours to complete the same route.
The interesting occurance happened during the race. When Mihailov and Deschamps, going almost wheel-to-wheel, came to a railroad bridge near Yambourg, the turnpike began to close down, due to a train arrival. While Mihailov succeeded in crossing the railroad, Deschamps was a bit late, so he had to stop and wait until the train went through. Mihailov won a lot of time… Deschamps finally came second before Stepanov, though suffered from tyres. In fact, this problem followed Genrik’s Mors, too.