Jim Kershner’s This day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Two local auto daredevils in a Buick racer (Model 18) made a wild and perilous run from Spokane to Coeur d’Alene and back in an attempt to win a speed challenge offered by the Spokane Motor Club.

At one point, the car went airborne for 72 feet to clear an irrigation ditch in Otis Orchards. Onlookers measured the jump with a steel tape and then announced that the car must have been going 75 miles an hour. Not bad for a 30-horsepower car.

The landing, however, was a little rough. “The car alighted on two wheels” and driver G.C. Murray barely kept the car on the road.

Onlookers lined parts of the route and reported you could hear the screaming motor from three miles away.

The car had earlier encountered some problems when a tire picked up a nail and threw the car into a helpless slide. Murray and mechanic Paul Welch fixed the flat in a minute and a half. Then another tire blew out in Post Falls.

Still, they managed to make the 62-mile trip in just under 85 minutes. Unfortunately, the Spokane Motor Club required a finish under 80 minutes in order to claim the Speed Cup.

Murray vowed to try again.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

2009: Funeral services were held in Boston for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.